


The Heir

by SweetLittleDarling



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Peter Parker, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Avengers Family, Daddy Issues, Father-Son Relationship, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Becomes Spiderman, Protective Pepper Potts, Runaway, Team Bonding, Teen Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2020-04-11 02:25:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 22,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19098574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetLittleDarling/pseuds/SweetLittleDarling
Summary: "Ned, he is a paranoid, overprotective control freak.""Pepper, he is a spoiled little brat with an attitude."Peter Parker was adopted reluctantly by Tony Stark when his parents died. Fast forward twelve years later and Peter and Tony are at each other's throats driven by Tony's controlling ways since Peter was a child. When Peter tries to prove himself to Tony that he is capable of taking care of himself by dealing with HYDRA agents, he finds himself in a sticky situation. That's where Tony steps in.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> New Story! New Story! I'm still bouncing off ideas, so if you have any suggestions please let me know : )

One

When Tony Stark first meet Mary Parker nee Fitzpatrick she had been a junior at MIT while Tony was finishing his doctorate degree. He had meet her in the library when she had told Tony off for smoking in the classified section of the library.

She was pretty, not that tall and slender. She had big hazel brown eyes and short dark hair, her lips were painted a strawberry pink. They had argued for a bit, and then Tony had offered to buy her a caramel macchiato.

They ended up having sex in the library one time and then Tony being Tony had ended up breaking Mary’s heart and because of pride, or vanity, or because Tony was an asshole he didn’t apologize to her.

Mary graduated from MIT a semester early. Two years later Tony had heard from his best friend Rhodey that she had married a man named Richard Parker. Three years later he received a picture in the mail. Inside was a cheap, kodak photo with a happy, smiling baby with curly brown hair and Mary’s eyes. He had turned it around and he recognized Mary’s beautiful handwriting on the back, PETER BENJAMIN PARKER.

Tony instructed his newest assistant, a nervous wreck with freckles that he had secretly nicknamed Pepper to send an expensive, yet thoughtful gift to the newest member of the Parker family.

* * *

 

Christ. Fuck. Holy shit.

Obadiah Stane looked up at Tony who looked like he wanted to murder someone or as if he were in the middle of heart attack. Or both. They were standing in the middle of the lobby of Stark Enterprises.

Obadiah looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “You don’t have to do this you know. You can give up any guardianship, I can get a social worker, just say the word-“

“No.” Tony practically snapped. He still had a hungover from yesterday and his back hurt because his newest conquest Chrissy? Lory? Had tried some new BDSM trick on him that he didn’t quite agreed on.

He was in no mood to deal with a kid. Crap, not even a kid yet. A toddler. Three years old still counted as a toddler right? The boy couldn’t even sign up for the local preschool yet. Tony looked at the newspaper that laid on the coffee table: DISASTROUS PLANE CRASH IN RUSSIA _. Fourteen members confirmed dead. . .part of the United States Government. . .reason unknow. Mary Parker and Richard Parker-_

He then recalled the call from his surprised lawyer than told him that Mary had left him as the guardian of little Peter Benjamin Parker. Why the hell had she chosen him? They hadn’t seen each other in almost a decade and their last exchanged had been a photo of her newborn son.

Why had she left him as Peter’s sole guardian? Tony had immediately searched for any other relatives that Peter may have. Mary had been an only child and her own parents had died six months ago in a car crash. Richard had a brother named Benjamin and a wife named May. But Tony had found out that both of them were barely making end meets and couldn’t possibly take care of a child. Not to mention that they lived in Queens which is another subject entirely.

So it seemed that Tony was stuck even though Obadiah practically had the social worker on speed dial. For some reason he couldn’t call them. Maybe it was because it was Mary’s child and he felt guilty about how he had treated her all those years ago.

“Here you go, sweetheart,” Pepper cooed as she opened the door trying to carry his coffee and a stack of folders while at the same time holding the hand of an energetic three year old with wild, curly brown hair and wide brown eyes that was looking around as if he had been in a cage all his life.

Obadiah didn’t look pleased and to be frank neither did Tony. When Tony didn’t say anything, Pepper spoke up. “This is Peter, Mr. Stark.”

Peter looked at him with wide, baby like innocence as he started sucking on this thumb. Tony frowned. “Thank you, Miss Potts, can you please take him to his room? The nanny should be there by now. She will take care of him.”

Pepper looked disappointed at his lack of response, but really what did she expect? He was no Mary Poppins. “Come along, Peter.” Pepper said as she handed him his coffee with more force than necessary as Peter trailed behind her like a baby duck following his mama.

Obadiah and Tony watched as they left, “Tony, what are we going to do about that infant?”

“Nothing for now,” Tony said. “He’s practically a baby. How much trouble can a baby be? Besides there’s nannies and boarding schools and summer camps. With any luck I will never have to even see the kid.”

“Still to raise a child that it not your own from a woman that you had an affair years ago-“

“Obadiah you know me,” Tony replied as he took a sip of his coffee. “It will take the Grim Reaper himself to drag me down the aisle. The kid doesn’t look psychotic and god knows that I don’t want to procreate a child.”

“But?” he sounded annoyed.

“But I won’t live forever. I still need an heir.”

* * *

 

“Look at him.”

“I am.”

“Well, look at him. He’s practically a baby. He’s three years old.” Days later Tony was feeling less sure about his decision as Rhodey looked on amused. Rhodey was wearing his old MIT sweatshirt.

“He’s three. He will be in preschool next year.” Rhodey said with a raised eyebrow. “Remind me again why you agreed to take him in. You don’t even like kids.” They were in Peter’s nursery where he was playing with blocks with his nanny. Was the kid ever unhappy?

“I wasn’t kind to his mother when she was alive.” Tony said shortly. Peter was telling something to his nanny something about a kitten and a cookie.

“Tale as old as time.” Rhodey said. “Look, Tony don’t take the kid in because of guilt. It will never work well. Let the kid be adopted, he’s cute or give him back to his actual relatives.”

“His aunt and uncle can’t afford him and you know how I feel about foster care.” Tony said dryly. “Which you know is where he will end up, everyone wants babies. No, Peter will stay with me.”

* * *

 

Tony was in the middle of his third glass of whisky when he heard a squeaky voice say. “Mickey Mouse. I want. . .to see Mickey Mouse.”  Tony jumped a mile when he saw Peter in a pair of Winnie the Pooh pajamas.

“How the hell did you get out of your crib?” Tony snapped with more force than necessary because Peter burst into tears. Shit. “Jarvis, get the nanny, will you?”

“Yes, sir.” The AI replied.

Tony picked up Peter who was wiggling in his arms. “Peter, Pete. Stop crying now.” Peter did as he was told, though this was replaced by hiccups. He gave a frustrated sign, where was the nanny? Tony took him so that he could see the ocean overlooking his Malibu mansion. “Look, kid ocean.”

Peter gaped and Tony relaxed as Peter started looking at a couple of seagulls. He could do this. He could do this for Mary and for himself. After all he needed an heir.


	2. Two

Two

Fifteen-year-old Peter Parker looked at the clock that was on his wall. 4:56pm on a Friday night. He dropped his phone on his stomach. Ned had stopped answering so he could only guess that he was talking with Betty, a fellow member of the decathlon team. Even since those two those had been “snapchatting” and following each others tweets, Peter had seen him less and less.

Peter didn’t have a lot of friends and he guessed that he was losing him to the dark side of dating- something that Peter couldn’t relate to since not even the flies bothered to look at him and he was so shy and awkward that he didn’t talk to any other girls other than MJ. MJ didn’t count however because Peter thought of her as a sister and the first thing that he had told him when they had meet was that she wasn’t interested in a romantic partnership of any kind.

The only other girl on the Decathlon team was named Annie and she preferred Penelopes to Peters. It was a huge difference compared to his father Tony Stark who practically oozed charm and confidence. Tony had women practically tripping just to get him to hold their hand.

Tony had taken advantage of his ladies’ man status by dating countless of models, actresses, and singers who had seemed surprised when they realized that he had a son, and then they had quickly lost interest as if Peter was an ugly puppy. Thankfully, his relationships never lasted long.

When Peter was 14 Tony had entered a relationship with his long suffering assistant Pepper Potts. Despite the occasional argument their relationship seemed to be going strong and she actually liked Peter. Peter couldn’t say the same thing about his adopted father. Peter knew that Tony was not his biological father, but he still called him dad because he was the only parent figure that Peter knew besides Pepper, and Tony had never corrected him. By all account Tony had raised and fed him for the past 12 years.

“Mr. Parker,” Friday’s smooth voice said (Jarvis had to be replaced shortly after Peter had been adopted by Tony thanks to a lab related accident.) “Might I remind you that you will be leaving at 6pm with Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark to the Oscorp Charity Ball. You should probably get ready soon.”

Peter groaned. He had forgotten that Tony had practically forced him to go to the stupid charity ball. “Dad is not even here yet.”

“He just arrived, he wanted me to remind you so you wouldn’t ‘pout all the way there’.”

“Would be nice if he told me to my face.” He mumbled as he sat up. Peter knew that he better get a moved on if he didn’t want to deal with the consequences. After all his father was known for his intelligence and his temper. Well, to be clear he always seemed to loose his temper with Peter.

Peter and Tony had never had the best relationship, though he remembered he had been clingy as a child. Peter knew that Tony was not his biological father, yet he still called him dad maybe because he lived with the guy and he was the only male figure in his life (well besides Happy and Rhodey.)

Growing up being the adopted son of Tony Stark had been well. . .interesting to say the least. To the public eye Tony was a charismatic ladies’ man, with Peter he was well different. He had never been cruel to Peter or physically abusive growing up (with the exception of spanking Peter one time when he was 4 for running into incoming traffic.) Tony had just been well, cold for lack of a better word.

Always strict, always overbearing, and he always, always had the last word because he was the “man of the house” whatever that was suppose to mean, but Peter knew that silently Pepper was the one that held the reins. Pepper had been the one that convince Tony that he didn’t need a tracker to go to the bathroom. She had also been the one to convince Tony that Peter should be allowed to attend Midtown High School even though in Tony’s words it was a “dirty public school” and he didn’t care that his best friend Ted or Med went there.

And ever since Tony had become Iron Man his overprotectiveness had become even worse. Peter felt like he had to let the man know when he was getting a pop tart.

It made Peter wonder why Tony was so overprotective of him since the man didn’t even seem to like him. Still he had adopted him when Peter became a sad orphan so that had to count for something, right?

Even though Tony had created HQ for his fellow Avengers, Peter and Pepper still resided in the tower since it was closer to both school and Pepper’s job. Which Peter was bummed about especially since Dr. Banner was totally cool.

Peter forced himself to stand up so that he could head on to the shower. He looked at his reflection in the mirror. Event though he knew that him and Tony weren’t biologically related he couldn’t help, but compare himself to the older man. Tony was slightly taller than him with inky black hair, a strong built, and olive tan skin thanks to his Italian heritage. Peter Parker on the other hand had a slight built, with a pale complexion, and chocolate brown curls.

People often confused him for Pepper’s son instead of Tony’s. He took a quick shower and then picked through the assortment of designer suits and shirts that he rarely wore. He finally decided on a black Armani suit and a blue button down shirt.

“Peter,” Friday’s voice said. “Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts are waiting for you downstairs. They are already in the car.”

“Shit.” Peter quickly grabbed his coat so that he wouldn’t freeze in the cold December air. Happy grimaced at him as he opened the car door and he slipped next to Pepper. Tony was dressed in his usual dark suit and Pepper was wearing a beautiful emerald green dress.

Peter’s face was flushed pink. “Sorry. I’m late.”

“Nonsense,” Pepper kissed his cheek. “You look adorable, Pete. We just got into the car, right Tony?”

Tony was looking at his phone and didn’t even seem to notice that both of them were there. Pepper not so gently removed his phone from him. “Stop it, we are going to a party. You are going to enjoy yourself.”

“We are going to a charity event.” Tony corrected with an eye roll. “Which is code for ‘Give me Money so I don’t have to work for things.’ I don’t even like Osborn and Peter is the one that is friends with his son Harry not me.”

“It won’t kill you to play nice for two hours.” Pepper said firmly as Happy stopped the car in front of Oscorp Enterprises. Mr. Osborn greeted them. “Tony nice to see you, Pepper you look beautiful, and Peter you’ve grown taller.”

“Hello, Mr. Osborn.” Peter said politely. Like most charity events there wasn’t anyone under 50 there. “Where is Harry?”

“He went skiing at the last minute with his cousins from Colorado I’m afraid. Oh, there is Josie excuse me-“

Peter groaned; Harry was the only one that he talked to during these event. He turned to his father. “Can I go-“

“No.” Tony said as he grabbed a champagne glass from a passing waiter. “You are staying here, Pete. You will survive for two hours.”

“There isn’t anyone under 50 here and I don’t like auctions.”

Tony took another sip. “I said what I said.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your support! Up next a bored Peter meets a tiny spider. . .


	3. Three

Three

“Why does he always have to have the last word? Always. I swear that man would jump from the Brooklyn bridge if I decided that I wanted to have the last word for once.” Peter mumbled to himself as he walked through the crowded array of heavily perfumed ladies and alcohol induced men.

Peter planned to hole himself somewhere inside Oscorp until it was time to leave. Tony never lasted more than two hours at these events. He pushed a door open and was surprised that no alarm rang. Peter walked through the long, never ending stairs, he was tempted to just stay here and spend all his time of his phone.

He pulled out a carton of cigarettes and a lighter. He had gotten into a bad habit of smoking when he was nervous or pissed off, a habit he picked up from Flash. He didn’t smoke often and he had been forced to listen to the mind numbing boring lessons from Captain American, so he knew about cancer and heart disease yada, yada.

Peter was a good, honor student who was on the Decathlon team who smoke when he was having a bad day. So sue him. He lit up his cigarette. If his dad ever found out that he smoke the man would have a coronary, not to mention that he would probably end up kicking Peter’s ass.

His son could never be involved in something like that.

Peter soon grew bored waiting by the stairs and decided to explore whatever else Oscorp Corporations had to offer. Though he had a feeling it could never top Stark Enterprises. His father could be an uptight jerk, but Peter had to admit that the man was a genius.

He pushed open a door that read CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES OLNY. He had expected to find more office, but instead Peter was surprised to see animals inside small cages in the room. A rabbit with unsually large ears and lavender eyes, an iguana in a rare shade of green, and in a large container a tiny black spider with red imprinted on his belly.

Unlike Ned who screamed when he saw something with more than four legs, Peter actually liked insects and this spider was kind of cute. “Hey, little guy why are you cooped up in there?” Peter asked the spider. The spider seemed to respond by running around in circles.

Peter looked around, there didn’t seem to be anyone here, not even the janitor. He wanted to remove the spider from the cage, but it required a passcode. Peter frowned, he tried Harry’s birthday and Mr. Osborn’s wedding anniversary, but those didn’t work. Finally he tried the year that Oscorp was founded the keyboard blink green. Peter slowly removed the cage.

The spider seemed to scurry its way to freedom causing Peter to panic. “No wait, come back.” He squealed as he tried to stop the spider from running without squishing it at the same time. The spider crawled up his hand and Peter suddenly felt a burning sensation on his hand. “Ow.” He yelped as the spider fell to the floor and scurried away. Had the stupid spider bitten him?

His cell phone rang. Tony. Had it been two hours already? He answered.

“We’re leaving in ten.” Tony said. “So stop moping and meet us by the fountain or you’re walking home.”

“Got it.” Peter said weakly. Damn it his hand still stung it almost felt like the spider had cut his hand off. Peter looked for the spider, but he couldn’t find it. He placed the glass on top and prayed that Mr. Osborn didn’t have any security cameras.

* * *

 

Where was the boy? Honesty, he needed to stop playing this disappearing tricks on him. Tony wasn’t getting any younger.

“Why do you always have to be so hard on him?” Pepper said softly standing next to him. She smiled at another guest as they left. “You need to loosen up with him, Tony. He’s a good kid.”

“Unless I want a Tony 2.0 I know what I am doing.” Tony finished his scotch.

“Peter is not you.” Pepper practically stifled a laugh. “In case you haven’t noticed. I’m not saying lose the reins, I’m saying loosened them. Like when Peter asked if he could get a job working at Mr. Delnarm’s with Ned you automatically said no.”

“He’s rich.” Tony said sounding exasperated. “He doesn’t need to work and Lord knows he barely touches his allowance.”

“Well then you should be admiring his work ethic. Honestly, Tony you and Peter would have a better relationship if you just relaxed a little.”

“Says little Miss Type A.” Tony joked.

Peter finally appeared through the crowd of people. Tony frowned, had he always been so skinny? Did he eat anything besides take out? He looked unusually pale and slight, yet Peter always looked pale and slight, Mary had been the same way.

“I’m here.” Peter said finally reaching them. He hoped that Pepper and Tony couldn’t smell the cigarettes on him, though he could always blame the fact that he wandered into the smoking section.

“Where have you’ve been Peter?” Pepper said as she grabbed her coat from coat check. “Did you have a nice time?”

“I was walking, Mr. Osborn said he had some cool things to show me.” Peter lied. “And I sort of last track of time.” The three of them got in the back of the sleek, black car. Peter and Pepper began discussing the food at the event while Tony glanced at them.

Pepper was right, Peter was a good kid. When he had been fifteen Tony had been smoking weed and stealing the private plane to go to Ibiza. The most scandalous thing that Peter did was stay past midnight rebuilding his Star Wars Death Star.

As they drove towards the tower, Tony thought about Peter’s childhood. He had mostly been with the nanny until Peter turned seven and then Tony had sent him to a good and expensive boarding school in Boston while he stayed in Malibu. He only saw him during the summer during his kid years and to be honest Pepper and Happy spend more time with him that he had done.

When he reached 7th grade, Peter had begged Tony to stay in the city for Junior high and at the time Tony had agreed mainly because the whole situation with Loki had happened and he wanted to keep a close eye on him. This time however, Peter didn’t search for Tony or for his affection and instead choose to go to summer camp with Ned.

To be honest if Pepper didn’t insist on Sunday dinner, they would probably never see each other. They finally reached the tower and Happy let them out. Pepper started taking off her heels as soon as she got into the elevator. Peter’s hand still burned, damn that stupid spider did they have fangs or something?

“Peter, remember that your father and I will be leaving tomorrow for China.” Pepper said.

Peter nodded, he just wanted to slip into his sweatpants.  “Ok, good night and have a safe trip.”

“Good night.” Tony said. “We will be back in a week, listen to Happy. Check your phone, I will be checking up on you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I'm glad that you guys are enjoying it. As you guys have probably guess, Peter is on the way to becoming a teenage superhero!


	4. Four

Four

“Sir, sir are you awake?” Friday whispered into Tony’s ear jolting him awake. He wasn’t much of a sleep person, but he thought that he should get a least some sleep before him and Pepper left for China. It was midnight. They had barely gotten into bed an hour ago. “Fri, I told you to wake me up at four.” He hissed the last few words because he didn’t want to wake up Pepper and face her wrath.

“I know sir,” Friday sounded almost apologetic. “But I am simply following the Baby Monitor Protocol that you have in place for Mr. Parker.”

That got his attention. When Peter moved back in after the whole Loki incident, Tony had installed the Baby Monitor Protocol to keep an eye on him without Peter whining about it. Tony had programmed Friday to let him know immediately when Peter was sick, where he was in the tower, when he was in danger, and when he needed to get a hold of Tony.

So far the Baby Monitor Protocol had not been used at all, so when Friday contacted him in the middle of the night he immediately panicked. Had Peter sneaked out of the tower? Was there a buglar?

Tony stood up quietly so that he didn’t wake Pepper. He went outside of his bedroom towards the kitchen. “What is happening, Friday?”

“Mr. Parker is ill,” Friday said. “He has been having trouble sleeping for the past hour as well as a high fever. He is currently in his private bathroom throwing up.”

“Crap.” Tony went towards Peter’s room. He couldn’t remember the last time that Peter had gotten sick. During his elementary school years Peter had been away at boarding school and after that Peter rarely got sick besides the occasional cold-and Friday had never contacted him about that.

Tony didn’t want to wake Pepper, even though (and Tony hated to admit this) she would probably be more levelheaded about the entire situation. He went to Peter’s room which was located in the same floor as his (in case of a potential kidnapping). Peter’s room had its own adjoined bathroom along with a huge collection of Star Wars dolls. Figurines, he rolled his eyes at the term that Peter insisted that he call them.

The bathroom light was turned on and Tony stepped inside nearly freaking out in the process. Peter was deadly pale, he almost looked gray. He was sweating profusely and his dark curls stuck to his forehead. He was resting his head on the toilet seat which obviously was not the most sanitary place.

Peter seemed shocked to see Tony as if he didn’t expect to see him. He started babbling in his usual Peter liked way that many people seem to find adorable, while Tony found it annoying.

“I think it’s food poisoning,” he started babbling. “I think I ate some bad shrimp at the Osborns-“

“Stop talking,” Tony interrupted as he pressed a hand against Peter’s forehead. “Temperature, Fri?”

“102.1, sir.”

“You’re burning up,” Tony murmured under his breath, while Peter laid there awkwardly liking how the coolness of the toilet seat felt on his hot face. “Did you throw up?”

Peter nodded. He hadn’t had a lot of food in his stomach besides some cold pizza and a couple of shrimp that he had at the Osborn party. He briefly wondered if smoking and the lack of food had made him throw up, not like he was going to tell Tony that. “I’m done though, I don’t have anything else in my stomach. How did you even know I was sick-“

“Uh-I just know things.”

If Peter was suspicious, he didn’t show it as Tony helped him into bed. His body was weak and his hand was still itchy. He had been scratching it raw for the past hour and he was surprised that he hadn’t scratched if off. He pulled the covers over his bed and tried to curl himself into a fetal position.

“Hold it, don’t fall asleep you need to take these.” Tony said gruffly as he handed Peter two Tylenol pills and a glass of water. Peter dutifully swallow them and Tony visibly relax. “Get some sleep. If you’re still feeling sick tomorrow you don’t have to go to the decathlon meet.” Honestly, Tony didn’t care if he never went, but he seemed to enjoy them and that MB girl seemed to always be trailing behind them. Well, both of them were oddballs now that he thought about it.

“I have to go, otherwise MJ will kill me.” Peter said sleepily as he fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

 

Burning.

Peter felt like he was burning. His eyes were shut tightly as if they had been superglued together and his skin felt hot and achy. All around him he could feel voices arguing, though he didn’t quite know who they belong to or why they were arguing.

“We need to take him to the hospital-“

“It’s just the flu you can’t take him because he has the flu-“

“-Tony, you need to calm down, Helen and I already gave him antibiotics, give them a chance to work-“

“He’s burning up, he hasn’t been able to keep anything down in two days-“

And suddenly as fast at it happed it stopped. The ringing in his ears stopped and his body didn’t feel like it was on fire anyone. He was half asleep when he felt Tony pressing a hand on his forehead, running a hand through his sweaty curls.

He didn’t notice that Peter was half awake because he was barking orders on the phone. “I know that Fury wants to talk to me, but I can’t talk to him right now Rogers. Pepper is in China by herself right now and I have a sick kid here.” A pause. “No, Peter hasn’t gotten better his fever broke last night finally, but Cho and Banner keep arguing about what is really wrong with him. They are driving me crazy. Yes, talk to you later. Friday, let me know when the kid wakes up alright, we need to get some food in him.”

“Will do, sir.”

Peter waiting until Tony left to get out of bed. “Friday, please don’t let dad know that I am awake.”

“Sir asked me to, Mr. Parker.”

“Please, I will go find him.” Peter begged. “I just really want to take a shower and then I will go looking for him myself.”

A pause. “Fine Mr. Parker. You have one hour otherwise I will tell Mr. Stark myself.”

“Thank you Fri, how long was I sick?”

“Four days. Ms. Potts left for China and Dr. Banner and Dr. Cho are currently resting in their rooms. You have been very sick, Peter. I’m glad that you’re better.”

“I’m glad too.” Peter said. He desperately needed a shower, he thought as he entered his spacious bathroom. He loved the feeling of the hot water against his body. He didn’t feel tired, like he normally did after a long illness. He felt like he had huge amounts of energy.

He turned off the shower and reached to get a towel from the towel rack. He pulled the towel from the rack and somehow ended up pulling it and breaking the towel rack from the wall.

Peter looked confused. What the hell? How did he do that?


	5. Five

Five

What the hell? Peter looked at the towel rack again as if he couldn’t believe that he had actually broken it, especially with his skinny arms that were as strong as spaghetti noodles. Shit. How was he going to explain this to his dad? He was not going believe him that he just yanked it out. It wasn’t like he was goddamn Thor.

“Pete!” Tony yelled from outside the restroom. He sounded frantic and nervous. Very un-dad like. He probably thought that Peter had fallen dead. Though, he had to admit that it was kind of nice, Peter couldn’t remember the last time that Tony had felt so much concern over him.

He hid the broken towel rack with several towels. He could always try to fix it later. He was a tinker. He had always been good at fixing things and he always seemed to be one foot ahead of his father. Growing up as the son of a paranoid, overprotective billionaire had taught him well.

He quickly slipped into a pair of sweatpants and an old Beatles T-shirt that he had lying around. Peter exited the restroom and saw his father standing there in a pair of sweatpants and raggedy black tank top. Peter almost looked taken back when he saw him. He hadn’t expected to see him well, like that.

Tony’s eyes were sunken because of lack asleep, the stubble across his face had grown immensely, and he was pale and shaky. He usually got like that when he had too much coffee to drink and not enough sleep.

Peter couldn’t help, but feel a bit guilty. He must have really been sick for Tony to look like that.

Tony’s heart settled into his chest when he realized that Peter wasn’t half dead on the bathroom floor. He looked ok. Not great, he was still pale and way too skinny, but he looked way better than he had been in the past few days.

Tony did something he never did. He hugged the boy. Peter’s hair smelled like that strawberry shampoo that Pepper insisted that they should buy. It smelled wonderful. Peter started squirming. He couldn’t remember the last time that Tony hugged him, if ever. “Uh, dad. You’re making it hard to breath.”

“Sorry.” Tony felt awkward. “I told Friday to call me when you woke up.”

Peter shrugged. “I wanted to take a shower first.”

“Well, it’s clear that both of you never listen to me, ” Tony murmured under his breath. “Come on let’s let the maid clean up in here. We can get some breakfast, are you hungry?”

Surprisingly, Peter was. He felt like he was starving and he wanted pancakes. “Yes, please.” They went into the spotless kitchen that was barely used. Tony and Pepper were usually so busy that they only ate dinner together on Sundays. Peter mostly survived on takeout and whatever Ned’s mom cooked for him and Ned.

After Tony instructed Happy to get Peter pancakes with bacon from the local deli, the two of them sat at the dining room table. Peter would have thought that after so many days of illness he would have felt weak and cranky, but he surprisingly had a lot of energy. In face he seemed to be bouncing with energy.

He nibbled on a pop tart. “How long was I-“ he trailed off. “You know how long was I out?”

“A couple of days,” Tony said as he took a sip of his whisky. “I’ve never seen you so sick, Pete. I stayed behind so that Pep could go to China. I thought you were going to-“ Tony trailed off, his jaw clenched. “Well, the important thing is that you’re better. You really freaked us out for a second, squirt.”

“I think it was something that I ate,” Peter said awkwardly. He checked to see where the spider had bit him. He only had a tiny, pink scar that was barely visible. “Thank you for staying I mean. You didn’t have to. I know your job is important.” Tony had never attended Peter’s recitals, awards ceremonies, or decathlon meetings. He briefly remembered that he had attended his 8th grade graduation. For him staying behind when Peter was sick, well that was big for him.

“Pancakes are here.” Happy said out of breath as he came in carrying a paper bag. “Good to see that you’re alive and well, kid.”

“Thank you, Happy.” Peter’s mouth practically watered when he saw the food. He immediately started eating and Tony seemed to relax when the food decided to stay down.

“I’m going to China tomorrow,” Tony blurted out. “Since you’re better and all. I can’t leave Pepper by herself. Would you be ok by yourself for 4 days?”

Peter nodded. They had gone on trips before and he had stayed behind with Happy all the time. “Don’t overexert yourself. Rest as much as you need. I don’t want to turn around and come back because you’re pushing yourself and had a fainting spell.”

“I won’t dad,” he hated being treated like a baby. He suddenly wasn’t so hungry. “When can I go back to school?”

“Jesus, kid relax a little.” Tony said as he finished his drink. “Whenever, Bruce says that you are well enough to attend school.”

* * *

 

Tony went to China the next day and Peter was visibly glad. The last thing he needed was Tony hovering over him. Bruce made him stay in bed for an extra two days much to his annoyance. He felt just fine. In fact, he needed to figure out how he was going to fix the towel rack.

That Tuesday, Peter was running late for school because he couldn’t find his backpack. Happy had already told him twice via intercom that he better hurry his ass up. God forbid he was allowed to take the subway. He finally found it hidden under his Darth Vader bathrobe.

“Sorry,” Peter apologized to Happy.

“Thanks to you we’re going to be stuck in traffic.” Happy mumbled. They arrived at Midtown with five minutes to spare. Peter thanked him and Happy murmured an answer.

Peter arched his backpack higher, he felt the hair rise up on the back of his neck as if someone was watching him. He turned around and Ned stood there looking disappointed.

Ned pouted. “I was going to surprise you. You never look up, you’re usually sleepy in the mornings.”

“I kind of felt you behind me.” Peter said slowly. Come to think of it everything seemed heightened ever since he had woken up. His hearing and eye sight seemed to have become better. He felt very awake.

“How are you?” Ned asked him with concern. “I called your house three times, but each time Mr. Stark told me you were sick. Are you feeling better?”

“I am.” Peter said as he pulled Ned closer. “But Ned, it’s just so weird ever since I woke up, I have felt different. More awake and I feel like I have a sixth sense.” Peter knew that he was babbling. “Ned, I broke the towel rack.”

Ned looked baffled. “Maybe it was already loose.”

“A $850 towel rack just became loose?” Peter said flatly. He paused, there was only one unusual thing that had happened to him in the past few days. “Ned, I think the spider bite did this.”


	6. Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your lovely support! I have decided to include a few snipets of Peter's life growing up : )

Six

Ned, as expected looked at Peter as if he was crazy and Peter couldn’t blame him. The whole, a spider bit me and gave me super strength seemed incredulous even to him. Ned said slowly. “Peter, are you sure that you’re feeling well? Maybe the medicine that you’re taking is making you hallucinate. When I broke my leg they gave me so much painkillers that I though Winnie the Pooh was my roommate-“

“No, Ned this is real I swear. I’m not joking, in fact I have a hard time believing it myself.” The bell rang and Peter dragged Ned into the bathroom, despite his complains that they were going to be late to first period. Peter showed Ned the hand where the spider had bitten him. It was no longer swollen and there was only a slight, pink scar. “I went to a party at the Osborn’s a few days ago and Mr. Osborn has all these weird animals trapped in cages and you know me, I got curious and opened the one with the spider. The spider bit me and a few hours later I got sick, but when I woke up Ned-I can’t explain it, but it was like I was reborn or something. I had so much energy it’s crazy.”

Peter knew that he was babbling and it was clear by Ned’s facial expression that he didn’t believe him. “So you think a spider caused this? A spider that you found in creepy Osborn’s lab?”

“Yeah.” It was clear that Ned was not going to believe him unless he showed him proof with his very own eyes. Peter grabbed the bathroom door on one of the stalls and pulled it apart easily as if he was tearing a paper from his notebook. “Now do you think it’s because of the medicine that Dr. Banner has been giving me?”

Ned gaped. “Wow, that is so cool. Is the spider still there? Does your dad know?”

“What? No! If my dad ever found out that I got this from Oscorp he will spend the rest of his life suing the company.”

“What else can you do?” Ned asked curiously as he looked at his best friend who was trying to fix the door, but was doing a terrible job at doing so.

“I honestly don’t know,” Peter said as he gave a nervous chuckle. In all honesty, he had never felt better. He no longer felt like weak, delicate Peter Parker anymore. “But I intend to find out. Meet with me after school?”

Ned nodded. “Always. Who knows maybe if you get any more powers besides super strength then you will be an Avenger.”

Peter snorted. The idea that he would ever be able to join without his father breathing down his neck was laughable. “Like that would ever happen.”

* * *

 

“Thank God that we are leaving tomorrow,” Tony groaned as he handed Pepper a glass of champagne. They were finally in their luxurious $20,000 per night suite in Hong Kong after a long day of meetings and business lunches and dinners. “If I have to hear the one stocks one more time I will literally strangle myself.”

Pepper chuckled as she took a sip of her own drink. “Have you talked to Peter, made sure that he’s alright?”

“No,” he took a sip of his own drink. “But I haven’t heard from Happy or Bruce that he fell over and died, so I’m guessing he’s good.”

“Tony,” Pepper shook her head.  She had been trying to create a bond between Tony and Peter for years, but Tony was stubborn and Peter had stopped trying years ago. “You should check up on him, especially when you go on your business trips, just to make sure that he’s ok.”

“I did check on him, Pep. Friday, told me he woke up feeling fine. That he ate a box of Lucky Charms for breakfast and then went on his merry way to school.”

“I meant personally.”

“Oh.” Tony paused. Him and Peter weren’t too emotionally invested in each other, except when one of them was in a near death situation. “I will make a note of that.” Pepper rolled her eyes.

“Well, I’m just glad that he is feeling better. Did Bruce or Helen ever found out what it was?” Pepper grabbed one of the room service menus and started looking through it.

“Nope. That is what is so strange about it, probably just a bad case of the flu. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Besides we are going home tomorrow. Peter can take care of himself for one day.”

* * *

 

_Twelve-year-old Peter kicked a piece of rubble that had fallen from the nearly destroyed upper tower. He had come back from boarding school only to find out that his home was halfway destroyed and that aliens had invaded New York. He gave a frustrated sigh, why did the exciting things always happen when he was not here?_

_“Don’t touch anything.” Tony scolded. He was on the phone with the New York City Health Department. “We have no idea what’s covered in Alien crap, so don’t touch anything!”_

_“I’m not,” Peter whined back. He was just glad that his own room hadn’t been destroyed, but his father and Pepper’s room had been left a mess. “Where’s everyone else?”_

_“They are covering the press or in Thor’s case babysitting his psychotic little brother.” Tony grumbled as he looked around. “Happy was supposed to drop you off at the hotel, kid. It could be hours until this mess is over.”_

_Peter shrugged. “All of the hotels are closed. I don’t mind waiting.” He fidgeted. He wanted to ask him something, but didn’t know if now was the right time. He figured now was better than never. “Dad, I was thinking, I don’t want to return to boarding school in the fall. Can I just stay here in New York with you and Pepper? I promise that I will stay out of the way.”_

_Tony didn’t say anything for a few minutes and Peter braced himself for the word no. “Yes,” the words slipped out of Tony’s lips. “It might be better if you stay in the city so that I can keep an eye on you.”_

_“Oh, great.” Peter trailed off. The last thing that he needed was Tony breathing down his neck, but it was better than nothing. At least he would be closed to the city with Pepper and Happy and now the Avengers._

* * *

 

“Are you sure that no one will be able to find us here?” Peter asked Ned nervously. As soon as school had let out, Peter had texted Happy and told him that he was going to stay later for a biology study session and that Mrs. Leeds was going to drive him home.

Ned had told him that he knew of a great place in Queens in where they could test Peter’s newfound “spidey powers” without anyone finding out. Though Peter didn’t think that he had meant an actual abandoned building. “Are you sure this is safe?”

“Don’t be such a princess,” Ned teased. “It’s just an abandoned building, nothing bad is going to happen. We have about 45 minutes before Happy sends out the national guard for you. How about we get started?”


	7. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! This chapter was so much fun to write! Thank you for your support!

Seven

“So what are you going to do first?” Ned pestered him as Peter stood awkwardly in the middle of the abandoned building not knowing what he was going to do. It wasn’t like the spider had given him a how to book.

“I don’t know actually.” Peter gave a nervous chuckle. “I know that I have super strength, but I don’t know what else I have.”

“Maybe speed?” Ned inquired as he brought up the suggestion. Peter ran across the length of the building, his feet felt light and he felt like he was floating. He had never been much of a sport’s person, but who knows maybe thanks to the spider he could be now. “Wicked. Let’s see what else spiders can do. Wait, crawl. Spiders crawl all over the place. Crawl on the wall.”

The whole idea seemed stupid to Peter, but he decided to do just that. He choose a wall that looked like it was close to falling down and as soon as he started to crawl his hands seemed to stick to the wall like super glue. Peter crawled up and he could hear Ned practically yelping in excitement. Peter closed his eyes and jumped to the floor and he landed on his own two feet without any problem.

“Wow, that was cool.” Peter felt jittery with excitement. He couldn’t believe that he had just crawled up the wall and then jumped off at such a ridiculous length, well for a normal human at least.

Peter and Ned continued doing several test runs for the next twenty minutes and were pleasantly surprised that besides crawling up dangerously high walls and jumping from them, he could also tell when something was coming his way (Ned had thrown a bag of potato chips at him and Peter had surprisingly caught them.) His hearing and eyesight had improved dramatically and Peter felt like he could hear anything now, it was both exciting and annoying.

“All I’m missing is the web, then I would actually be a real spider.” Peter said excitedly as him and Ned grabbed their stuff and exited the building. The last thing that they needed was to have Mrs. Leeds and Happy on their cases if they arrived late. “And I bet I could make some at HQ Dr. Banner and dad have a whole bunch of cool things, Dr. Banner lets me tinker around more than dad. He won’t notice if a few things go missing.”

“Peter, when you become an Avenger-“

“Ned, I won’t become an Avenger.” Peter gripped his backpack and sighed in frustration. “You and I both know that dad will never let me become an Avenger. All this has to remain a secret for now, otherwise I’m sure that he will find a way to get rid of my powers.”

Ned said quietly, “Peter, your dad wouldn’t do that. Besides when he finds out that you have powers he will have to let you join. That’s like their law or something, besides you could totally help them.

Peter gave a dark chuckle, Tony was many things, but he wasn’t flexible especially when it came to his only son. Besides there was no doubt in Peter’s mind that as soon as the supervillains in the area found out that precious Peter Parker hasd superpowers then they would come after him, the weakest link. “Ned, he is an overprotective, control freak the day that he let’s me in the Avengers it’s the day that I win the lottery.” They stopped in front of the tower. “Well, see you man. I’ll tell you if anything changes, hopefully I can get into HQ this weekend.”

Ned nodded, “Call me, whenever you need anything. I will be your guy in the chair.”

“My what?”

“Your backup. You know in case you need anything.” Peter grinned as he gave Ned a thumbs up. It was great that he had someone like Ned close by his side, especially when he had such a lonely childhood. The rest of the Avengers had tried to get close to Peter, but Tony was like a territorial bull dog and kept Peter on a tight leash. The only ones that succeeded was Wanda, Natasha, and Dr. Banner. Peter was glad that he at least had some people fighting on his side.

The elevator doors opened as he entered the living room and he saw Pepper and Tony talking. The maid was taking their suitcases towards their room. “You guys are back.”

“Finally.” Pepper embraced him and kissed him on the forehead, Peter hugged her back. “How are you, sweetheart? I heard being sick was not fun.”

“It wasn’t. But I’m better now.” Pepper and Peter talked about school for a bit while Peter tried to hide the fact that he was sweating thanks to their little exercises. “What do you want for dinner? Your  father and I are so tired that we don’t want to go out.”

“Thai food.” Peter blurted out and Pepper nodded as she excused herself to order Peter and Tony’s favorites. Peter and Tony stood there awkwardly, it seemed that whatever father and son moment that had transpire between them, he wanted desperately to forget.

“Dad, are you going to HQ this weekend?” Tony usually did, but Peter usually stayed behind mainly because him and Tony didn’t exactly have the best relationship and he would rather spend time with Ned and MJ.

“Same as every weekend,” Tony said as he fixed himself a gin and tonic. “Why the sudden interest?”

“I just thought I would come with you.” Peter played with Pepper’s candle collection trying to keep himself from sweating. He hated that he was a terrible liar and Tony knew that he was a terrible liar. “And say hello to everyone, it’s been a while and I’ve been cooped up in here.”

Tony nodded. “Ok, some fresh air might do you some good. You can spend some time with Banner, I’m working on the others’ suits anyway.”

Peter tried his best not to smile too hard so that he wouldn’t give himself away. Tony always left around loose parts of suits and weapons that he didn’t like, which drove Bruce crazy, but would serve to Peter’s advantage.

“Boys!” Pepper called out with a smile on her face. “Food is ready.”

* * *

 

_May Parker and Tony Stark watched as four year old Peter Parker chased a puppy that belonged to Pepper’s aunt. His chubby cheeks were flushed bright pink and his laugh could lighten up even the saddest of people. “He looks so much like Mary.”_

_“He looks like Richard, but he has Mary’s eyes.” Tony fished his 4 th drink, still trying to figure out how May had gotten his address. “How many times are we going to have this conversation, May?”_

_“The time that is takes you to agree to let me visit my nephew.” May said quietly, but firmly. “Be grateful that I convinced Ben to let me come alone or you would be in the hospital. He is our nephew, Tony and we weren’t aware why or when Mary made you his guardian. We respect your decision, but we should at least be allowed to see our nephew.”_

_“Enough with the threats, May.” Tony said coolly. “The only reason that I allowed you to come here in the first place is to put a stop to this pestering. I’m Peter’s guardian now and I decide who he gets to see and you are not on the list.”_


	8. Eight

Eight

Peter could count on his hands the number of times that he had been to HQ and when he did go he mostly hung out in the lobby. He didn’t know why his father limited his contacts to the other Avengers. Considering the fact that Peter felt like his father didn’t even seem to like him, it seemed odd to him that he seemed to micromanage every part of Peter’s life.

“Ok, Pete Dr. Banner’s lab is just down the hall. Room 606, do not touch anything and don’t let Wanda get you involved in anything crazy because last time you had feathers stuck all over you.” Tony said as he went in the opposite direction.

Peter practically skipped towards Dr. Banner’s lab. All of the Avengers were nice, but Peter was particularly close with Dr. Banner. He didn’t know why, maybe because he was kind and he wasn’t afraid to stand up to Tony. Besides if worse comes to worse Hulk could totally kick Iron Man’s ass.

Bruce was up his head in paperwork, which Peter thought was perfect because he needed Bruce to be kept busy. Bruce barely glanced at him, except to give him a smile. “Hey, Pete. How are you feeling? I’m sorry, Helen and I couldn’t figure out what happened a few weeks ago.” Bruce’s face twisted in confusion. “It was so weird, I still can’t get my head around it. I mean, one minute you’re so sick and then the next minute you’re fine.”

Peter started sweating. “Oh, you know teenage hormonals. You know how crazy they can be. It was probably nothing. I feel fine now.”

“Hmm,” Bruce said absentmindedly as he put something green inside another tube. “Listen, Pete. I’m kind of working on something. Do you think you can entertain yourself for a couple of hours?”

Peter stared at the array of broken machinery, tools, and chemicals around him. Bruce was so concentrated in what he was doing that he didn’t even glance in Peter’s direction. He picked up a metal hand. He didn’t spin webs like an actual spider, but maybe he could. He could create his own fluid. They had learned how to make glue in his advance chemistry class, how different could it be?

“Dr. Banner, would you mind if I tinker with these?”

“Help yourself. No one uses them anymore.”

* * *

 

“So if we sign the Accords then we get the government out of our ass. Finally.” Tony flipped through the 28 page document and squinted. Why did they make these letters so damn small? He looked up towards Natasha Romanoff who had been waiting to get his signature. He was the last one that they needed. “So after I sign this stupid piece of paper then we are in the clear right? Steve and the rest of the runway bandits are free to roam around the streets of New York, right?”

Natasha pressed her lips together and Tony could tell that she was trying very hard not to laugh. “That’s what they say,” Tony scribbled his signature at the bottom of the page. Of all the Avengers, Tony liked Natasha the best. Maybe because she was bluntly honest, they both seemed to have that in common. “Thanks, Stark. I noticed that you brought Peter to Headquarters, that’s new for you. Did someone die?”

“Ha ha, Peter asked to come so I let him,” Tony shrugged. “He hasn’t seen Banner since he got sick and I thought a few hours away from the city would do him good. Why are you acting so weird about it?”

Natasha shrugged. “No reason, you usually keep Peter as a, what was the phrase that Sam used? Ah, yes princess in the tower. We’ve only meet the kid a handful of times, Stark. You should let him come visit more often. We don’t bite.”

“I know you don’t, but Peter is Peter. He’s too gullible, too trusting. I want to keep our normal human lives and my superhero life separate.” Natasha looked like she didn’t really believe him, but she didn’t want to pressure him. “Is there anything else? Otherwise, I need to leave. Pepper and I going to the opera tonight.”

Natasha shook her head as Tony went outside. He looked at his watch, damn three hours had gone by. How had he spent talking to Nat about the stupid accords for 3 hours? Peter must have been bored out of his mind.

He went to the common area where he had installed a bunch of couches and a pretty nice TV. The usually squeaky clean area was now filled with potato chips, popcorn, candy wrappers, and cans of beer. Everyone was there acting as if they were at a college frat party. Peter was squeezed in between Wanda and Bucky and the kid was talking so fast that Tony could barely understand a word that he was saying.

A ping of annoyance settled in Tony’s chest. He had never heard Peter talk so much and he was never that excited when he was around him and Pepper. Well, maybe Pepper had a better relationship with him since she usually babied him. Either way, he felt annoyed when he saw him with the Avengers being all buddy-buddy especially with Steve’s war criminal, parent murdering friend. “Peter, get your things. We’re going home.”

Peter looked disappointed. “Already?”

“Come on, Tony let him stay a little while,” Wanda said with an eye roll. “We hardly get to see him.”

“That’s the point. Get your stuff, kid.”

* * *

 

“These are so cool,” Ned fanboyed over Peter’s web shooters the following Monday after school. His brown eyes practically glittered with excitement, no doubt practically getting his chair ready, just in case Peter ever needed him. Peter had worked on the silver web shooters in Dr. Banner’s lab, he had made them from parts of Sam’s wings and Tony’s Iron Man arm. They were silver and attached to his wrists like a bracelet. “Can you shoot from these?”

Peter chuckled. “Not yet. I’m trying though, do you remember when we did that glue experiment in Dr. Johnson’s chemistry class? Well, I’m trying to do the same, but instead of creating glue, creating webs or something similar.”

Ned sighed. “You’re so lucky, I wish I would have been bitten by a spider.”

“Funny, I didn’t feel so lucky a few days ago.” Peter mused. “Besides Ned, if my dad wasn’t Iron Man I wouldn’t have access to all of these cool stuff. My web shooters would have probably been made out of cardboard.”

“Uh, Peter where are we going?” Ned asked, they were three blocks away from the school already. “Because we skipped decathlon practice and you know as well as I do that MJ will kill us.”

“Here we are,” Peter said as they stopped in front of a small store with a yellow sign that looked like it has been that way since the 70’s. “This is Franny’s. Wanda said that there were a bunch of cool, vintage clothes here.”

“And?” Ned still looked confused.

Peter could barely contain his excitement. “We are going to look for clothes here to make my costume.”


	9. Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this little chapter just served as a small snippet of Tony's relationship with Peter growing up. I will of course add more flashbacks in future chapters.

Nine

**Four Years Old**

It was clear that May was not going to budge. Tony’s jaw clicked as he looked at the woman in front of him and wondered how a woman could be so stubborn. He briefly wondered if he should get Obadiah to kick her out, but Obadiah could be a bit of a brute sometimes and Tony didn’t particularly like hurting women.

Why May had decided to drop by from the middle of nowhere was a mystery to him. It had been a year since Mary had died and Peter had just turned four. He would be starting preschool next week and Pepper had already bought him all of his stuff. Backpacks and pencil cases covered with a yellow, laughing square that he was currently obsessed with.

He hadn’t heard from her or precious Ben in the weeks after Mary’s death, surely they had known that Peter had been dumped in Tony’s lap. And what was with the doting Aunt bit? Surely a concern aunt would have chased Tony the day after Peter had been given to him, not the year after.

Tony had also never bothered to contact May and Ben because he didn’t want to go against Mary’s wishes (how very Jesus like of him) and because he knew that they weren’t well off, Ben worked at some factory and May worked at a second rate hospital. What kind of lifestyle could they offer the kid?

Of course Tony wasn’t exactly Danny Tanner, but at least the kid wouldn’t be starving to death on his watch and the kid would be attending one of the best preschools in the state very soon.

“Are we done?” he blurted cruelly as he stood up and went towards Peter. Peter was giggling as the puppy licked his face and he was oblivious to the tension around him. Tony picked him up and Peter curled against his chest like a pampered pet. It still amazed Tony to this day that Peter seemed to like him even though he could probably count on his hand how much time he had actually spent with him. “Because I have a meeting to get to and I need to drop him off with his nanny for his nap. Tell me this Mrs. Parker, why did you wait so long to get in contact with me when my address is plastered everywhere?”

May flushed bright pink. “You can’t keep him away from us forever, Tony. We’re his family. His real family, sooner or later he’s going to know about us and he’s going to want to meet us.”

“Yes, when I’m dead and buried. You didn’t answer my question.”

“We live in Queens,” she blurted out. “We make a very modest living, we don’t have money to jet set to Malibu whenever we feel like it. You need to understand, after Mary and Richard died we were in shocked. We had to pay for 2 funerals and they are expensive, not to mention we were still wrapping our heads around why Mary gave you custody of Peter. We had to consult lawyers to see what we could do, but we’re here now. We are here for Peter, we just want to have a relationship with him, Tony please.”

“How very sweet. The answer is still no.” He said coldly as Peter started fussing in his arms. The idea of Peter starving and cold with relatives he barely knew in Queens entered his mind.  May and Ben were biologically related to Peter so it wasn’t as if they didn’t have a case. “I don’t want Peter involved with you or your husband at all. If you get in contact with Peter or me at all you can expect a very hefty lawsuit.”

**Seven Years Old**

It occurred to Tony that there was a reason why he had never had children in the first place. They required so much work and Peter really put a cramp on his style even if he had a nanny that was with him 24/7. His extreme partying and his nighttime guests needed to stop according to Pepper, especially since he had a child present. The magazines and daytime channels loved eating him alive. Tony did not like living as a nun.

So as soon as Peter turned 7 he had enrolled him in a private elementary boarding school in Boston. Pepper had been so upset when he told her that she hardly spoke to him for a week. If she wasn’t such a good assistant, Tony would have fired her.

So what if he was sending the kid to boarding school? He had gone to boarding school and he had turned out just fine. So why did he feel slightly guilty as he watched the skinny seven year old with the trembling lip standing in front of him.

“Why do I have to go?” Peter mumbled. “Don’t you love me anymore?”

“Kid,” Damn he really knew to pull at his heartstrings. “You’re going to a great school and you’re going to be with other brats your age. Don’t you want to hang out with someone else who isn’t Pepper, Happy, or me?”

Peter shrugged. “I like Pepper and Happy and you. I don’t want to go Daddy.”

Tony grabbed his small hand and walked him towards the parking lot where Happy was waiting. Peter dragged his feet, but of course he weight like 20 pounds so Tony opted to carry him. “Sorry, buddy but you don’t make the choices.”

Peter’s face turned pink as he burst into tears and started punching Tony’s chest with his little fists. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you daddy!”

**Twelve Years Old**

“ . . .The tesseract has like a ton of energy, like a ton. In Dr. Banner’s paper he hypothesized that if it was ever destroyed for whatever reason it can cause enough damage as if we just had a nuclear war.”

Tony heard Peter’s babbling since the elevator doors opened. Apparently he was excited over something called the tesseract and oh crap, he had brought Coulson along. The same man that he had been avoiding for the past two weeks.

In Phil’s defense, Coulson was smiling politely as Peter kept talking a 100 words per minute. Coulson looked at Tony. “Stark, I was about to come see you because you haven’t been returning my calls. I ran into Peter in the elevator.”

Tony nodded. “Peter, go play somewhere that isn’t here. The Agent over here and I have to talk.” Peter nodded, looking slightly disappointed that he wasn’t invited to the conversation. Phil and Tony watched as Peter left towards his bedroom.

Coulson smiled. “Smart kid that you have there. I’m surprise that he’s only in 7th grade. He should be taking high school junior classes at least. But then again I shouldn’t be surprised he grew up in your shadow.”

Tony’s jaw clicked. He knew that Peter was smart, too smart for his good. Schools had offered him to move him up in grades when it was clear that the work was too easy for him, but Tony had refused. He wanted Peter to enjoy his childhood, unlike he had. Besides the kid still got excited over the prize in the cereal box, high school kids would kick his sorry ass.

Phil pressed a hand to his hip. “Your son is good, Tony. He’s very knowledgeable and he seems to be a fan of Banner’s work. Within a few years there could be a place for him at SHIELD-“

“Don’t even think about it, Coulson,” Tony snapped. “I don’t want Peter involved, on the scene or in the background. You may have roped me into your little boy band, but you’re not roping Peter in. He stays far away or I’m out.”


	10. Ten

Ten

Peter turned around and showed Ned the outfit that they had picked at the thrift shop. They were thick black pants, black combat boots, and a heavy red and blue sweater that had a bunch of tiny spiders all around it (no doubt someone’s old Halloween’s relic.) To cover his face and prevent his identity from being discovered he had stitched two beanies together and cut holes so that he could see.

Sure, Peter looked at his reflection, he looked a bit creepy, but this was only the prototype. Besides he wanted to make sure that this was going to work before he wasted time and effort on a new outfit. For all he knew his dad might catch him on the first day and he would probably end up at boarding school by the end of the week

“How do I look?” he asked Ned nervously as he fiddled with his mask. “Do you think dad or any of the Avengers will be able to figure out who I am?”

Ned looked at him closely. “No, I don’t think so. Just make sure that they don’t pull the stupid thing off your head.” Ned handed him a walkie talkie. “Here I got these, so that we can communicate. I’m your guy in the chair after all. Have you thought about a name?”

Peter chewed on his bottom lip, he had thought of a few names such as Black Spider, Spider Boy, Tarantula, etc but he had finally decided on-“Spiderman.” He finally said. “My name is Spiderman.”

Ned grinned. “I like it. When are you going to start your patrol?”

Peter shrugged as he stated removing everything, he felt hot and stuffy or maybe it was nerves. “Tomorrow morning, I think. I think it’s better to start off slow. I’m leaving the tower at six am. School doesn’t start until 8, so I will have enough time.”

The following morning Peter told a sleepy Happy that he had joined marching band and needed to be at school at 6:30. Happy looked at the empty school and frowned. “Are you sure that practice is this early? I don’t want to leave you alone.”

“I’ll be fine, Happy.” Peter said trying not to sound too jumpy as he got out. “I’ll see you later.”

“Later kid, be safe.”

Peter waved at Happy like the traitor that he was as he tried to ignore the nervous pit in his stomach. He knew that he was putting Happy in awkward position even if he didn’t completely knew that he was helping Peter with his new role. Peter pulled out the tiny flasks of web fluid on the inside of the wrists on his gloves. He placed the backpack against the wall and used his web to make sure that it stuck against the wall. Peter smiled when he saw that it stuck. It worked. It really worked.

Peter puffed up his cheeks. He could do this. He could really do this. Peter hid behind a trash can and changed into his new outfit, he prayed that he didn’t look too creepy.

“One. . .two. . .uh three.” He flung towards the first building that he found, sticking to it like super glue and afraid that he would fall. The sleepy and over caffeinated New Yorkers stared at him with both curiosity and boredom as he flung from building to building.

Peter felt a rush of excitement. He felt so powerful, so strong, so free as if nothing else mattered.

“Help!” he heard a shriek as he turned around and saw an old lady gripping her purse away from an unknown assailant.

“Hey! Stop!” Peter said as he went towards the man and gripped the woman’s purse. “Didn’t anyone tell you that it’s bad to steal?”

“Buzz off, weirdo.” The man sneered, but thanks to Peter’s newfound strength he gripped the purse from his hand and Peter handed it to the trembling woman. “Son of a-“ The man tackled Peter as Peter fell to the floor. Peter pushed him back, but the guy wasn’t a quitter as both of them continued to roll on the floor.

Peter hesitated, he wanted him to stop, but he didn’t know how strong he was. He didn’t want to kill him. Peter felt a strange twinge on the back of his head, like a sort of warning. A second later he felt a sharpness on his side. Peter yelped as he noticed that the man had stabbed him with a knife. Peter punched him as hard as he could in the nose.

“Punk!” the man snarled as he limped away with a bloody nose and Peter was too freaked out to chase after him. The old lady ran towards him. “Are you ok? You poor dear, let me call 911!”

“No!” Peter yelled more harshly that he intended too. 911 meant hospital and hospital meant Tony. “I’m fine, really.” He forced a smile as he started limping.

“Thank you, young man!”

A few minutes later, Peter got a call from Ned. “Peter, where are you dude. You’re missing first period.” Ned said with a whisper and Peter limped towards the alleyway. He lifted up his sweatshirt and saw the stab mark. It was already starting to heal and he breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m on my way, Ned.” Peter said trying not to lose his calm. “Sorry, I got hung up on something.”

* * *

 

For the remainder of the week every time he was at “band practice” Peter paroled and besides the original stabbing incident he ended up having a pretty good week.  He stopped a car jacking situation, saved a little girl’s kitten, and stopped a bus from collapsing into a building. All in all it had been a good week and he felt like he was getting the hand on this superhero thing. It wasn’t that hard.

Though Peter definitely needed a new outfit. He saw pictures of himself and cringed. It was embarrassing being dressed like that. Already there was a storm happening with Twitter and Instagram. Some people called him Sweatshirt Guy others the Magician and others Sticky Guy. Not the best of names.

“Peter, dinner!” Pepper called and Peter put his phone away. It was Sunday which meant it was time for the usual Stark Sunday dinner. Pepper was putting the bowls of mashed potatoes and green beans in the middle. Neither Pepper nor Tony cooked, so it was just fancy take out.

Pepper smiled as she kissed him on the forehead. “How was your Sunday, sweetheart?”

“Good I went to the park with Ned and then I worked on homework.” Peter said as he sat down and took a fluffy roll of bread.

“Have you guys heard of this jackass that has been swinging around New York in a sweatshirt?” Tony asked them and Peter nearly choked on his bread. “He’s been hanging around all week and the police aren’t doing anything.”

Pepper frowned as she passed the plate of green beans towards Peter. “Is he dangerous?”

“Hardly.” Tony snorted as he started to cut his chicken. “He’s a regular Robin Hood, helping the little people and all that jazz. I’m going to keep an eye on him, I am wondering who he is. Maybe I’ll sneak up behind him and remove that stupid mask from him.”

Peter gulped as he started serving himself dinner. He had a feeling that he needed to start working on a new suit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Peter's role as Spiderman begins! Thank you so much for your patience!


	11. Eleven

Eleven

Peter was slightly snoozing when Ned jabbed him in the shoulder with a pencil. “Dude!” he hissed at him as he looked at their biology teacher Mrs. Edwards who was continuing to blabber on about the new science museum they would be visiting at the end of next month.

Meanwhile, Peter was with his head curled up inside his arms trying to catch up on some much needed sleep. He had been patrolling every day, twice a day on most days before school and after school and it seemed that it was finally taking its toll.

Ned finally pinched his shoulder and Peter gave a small yelp which cause Flash to snicker and for MJ to roll her eyes and mumbled something under her breath. Mrs. Edwards shot them a glare at Peter sat up and attempted to remove the drool from his face.

“As I was saying, Mr. Parker we are going to be starting our unit on genetics next week. I trust that you will find very interesting how genetics work and believe me your parents and grandparents play a bigger role in not only your looks, but your health as well. It is quite fascinating.”

“Very fascinating.” Flash snickered to Matthew Conner who was attempting to hide his smile. Mrs. Edwards frowned and handed Flash a pink detention slip. “Hey! Parker was sleeping in class, why doesn’t he get detention too?”

Mrs. Edwards ignored him and Peter was grateful and his cheeks turned pink. “As I was saying, you will have a small project that will be due next week, next Friday. It is a family tree.” The class groaned and Mrs. Edwards ignored them. “I have made it easier for you, you only have to pick one side of your family to study. It can be on mom or dad’s side, with you and any siblings that you may have at the center of course. I am asking you to notice some distinct traits such as eye color, eyesight, any medical conditions such as asthma. Please put some effort into this, people please. Class dismissed.”

Peter picked up his books and followed MJ and Ned outside. “Thanks for waking me up, Ned, I spaced out.”

“Spaced out?” MJ snorted with a raised eyebrow. “Dude, you were completely out. Are either of you excited for this stupid project? I guess I have to ask Linda and David for information, I better get snacks prepared because they can talk for hours.” Linda and David were MJ’s parents who Ned and Peter had met a handful of times. Both of them were accountants and MJ thought they were both incredibly boring, though Peter thought they were nice and Mrs. Jones made excellent brownies.

“Everyone in my family has this weird birthmark on their thigh, I can totally talk about that. Peter what are-“ Ned trailed off awkwardly.

Peter stopped by his locker and fumbled with his combination. What was he going to do? Tony was his adoptive father and he doubted that he would sit for a 20 minute interview with him. Besides it wasn’t what Mrs. Edwards wanted besides the only thing Peter and Tony had in common was the dark hair and brown eyes.

The only thing he knew about his parents was that they were Mary and Richard Parker. He couldn’t even remember how they looked like, he knew he had seen a picture of them before somewhere. “I’ll figure something out,” Peter said finally as he closed his locker door. “Maybe Mrs. Edwards can give me another project.”

* * *

 

You couldn’t pay Tony Stark enough to sit in a boring, mind numbing meeting being held by General Ross with the rest of the Avengers in tow. They had been sitting here for almost two hours and if Tony had to feel Ross’s spit on his face one more time he was going to end him. Besides Pepper or Cap could always break him out of jail if need be.

Natasha was sitting across from him and gave him a small eye roll. Steve however was listening attentively and was even taking down notes. Bucky was looking uncomfortable, probably because he was an ex-con.

“We need to get this Spiderman off the streets,” Ross snarled as he pointed a finger towards the man dressed in mismatched red and blue clothing and ugly mask. “He’s a menace.”

Tony stared at the picture, he had been keeping a close eye on this Spiderman, but hadn’t really done anything about him. Technically, he wasn’t breaking the law and it wasn’t like he was drowning kittens.

“General Ross, I don’t think you’re putting things quite into perspective,” Rhodey said. “This Spiderman dude, he doesn’t do anything bad, in fact he seems to be doing more good than anything else. Rescuing kittens from trees, stopping robberies, he’s helping the little people. I don’t see how we should involve the Avengers at all, he’s weird but that’s no reason enough to arrest anyone.”

Ross stiffened. “That’s besides the point, Colonel Rhodes. This would not be the first time that someone pretended to be on the side of the good. If we let this slide now, who knows next week Spiderman could make us wish that we were all dead. The sooner that we get him off the streets the better. I need one of you to bring him to me so that me and my team of experts can interrogate him-I’m sorry Mr. Stark am I boring you?”

“Not at all,” Tony said simply, finding it slightly amusing how Ross’s face turned red when he was upset. To put it into perspective no one seemed concerned about Spiderman at all with the exception of Steve and Rhodey. Wanda and Clint were secretly playing hang man, Natasha was very interested in her nail polish, Bucky was an anxious mess, and Banner had conveniently disappeared given his involvement with Ross. “Get Spiderman, interrogate him, he goes bye-bye. It all makes perfect sense.”

Ross let out a huff, but basically ignored Stark. “Now I’m going too. . .” He babbled on for a couple of more minutes before he finally freed them and the Avengers, Bucky, and Rhodey left the conference room. “Let’s get some Chinese food.” Natasha prompted. “I’m starving and that meeting took forever.”

Tony was about to agree when his cell phone rang, he frowned it was Midtown. Peter’s school. They never called him. They always called Pepper and if Pepper deemed it front page news then she would call him.

Sweat started building on Tony’s forehead. Was Peter hurt? Had Loki come back to haunt them, Thor was never very reliable. “Hello, this is Tony Stark.”

A man cleared his throat. “Mr. Stark, this is Principal Morita from Midtown, your son Peter’s school.”

“I know,” Tony said. Though to be honest he had only gone to the school a handful of times. Peter never got into trouble and when he got sick Happy always picked him up.

“I’m sorry to bother you, I know that you’re a busy man but we were wondering if you would be able to come to the school this afternoon,” Principal Morita said quickly. “We need to talk about Peter.”

“Is he ok? Is he sick? He was sick a few weeks-“

“He’s not sick, he’s failing.” He blurted out. “And he has a lot of absences and tardies. We will explain it all in the meeting Mr. Stark. Are you available to come?”

Tony paced around angrily. Failing? Absences? Tardies? His kid was about to flunk out of a second rate public school? Someone better be joking or Peter was a dead man. He should had never let Peter and Pepper talk him out of boarding school. For all he knew Peter was smoking crack in the bathroom. “I’ll be there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! The next chapter is going to be crazy!


	12. Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank so much for your patience! I'm sorry school has been busy!

Twelve

Peter’s last class was Spanish and he was practicing saying where was the library in Spanish when someone handed Ms. Perez a white slip. Ms. Perez raised an eyebrow and looked at Peter curiously, which Peter found out odd since Peter usually blended in the background.

“Peter, you are wanted in the office. Principal Morita wants to speak to you. Take your stuff the period is almost over.” Peter flushed pink as everyone looked at him as if he had grown a pig’s tail. Peter ignored Ned and MJ’s curious looks as Peter grabbed his plain black backpack and headed towards the office.

He wondered why Principal Morita wanted to speak to him. Had he won student of the month again? Did he have any questions about decathlon practice? Whatever it was he hoped that it would be quick, he didn’t want to miss patrol.

Mrs. Green the secretary was waiting for him, she was flipping through Cosmopolitan magazine. She barely looked up from her magazine. “Principal Morita and Mr. Stark are waiting inside Mr. Parker.”

“Thanks Mrs. Green, I-“ Peter trailed off as he stuttered. He felt as if his heart had stopped inside his chest. “Wait, did you say Mr. Stark? Mr. Stark as in my father?” Peter couldn’t remember the last time Tony had come to his school. Was someone hurt? Was Pepper dying? Was it Dr. Banner? Or Captain America or Ms. Romanoff? Maybe Thor?

“That is what I just said,” Mrs. Green snapped. “Would you please hurry along, Mr. Parker? You are not the only one that has a life you know.”

Peter didn’t bother asking any more questions, he didn’t want to get into Mrs. Green’s bad side. He entered the room and saw Principal Morita looking nervous, the guidance counselor Mr. Peyton who was shifting through papers as if he were an anxious newscaster, and his father was sitting on one of the plastic chairs looking pissed.

To be honest Peter was actually amazed that Tony had managed to hold his composure for as long as he had especially since Peter had been walking as slow as a turtle trying to get to the office. Usually, Tony’s face got an angry, splotchy red whenever he was mad at Peter, but right now he was just throwing daggers at him. He was probably wondering how he would be able to murder Peter without anyone finding out.

Principal Morita pointed to the equally hard pointed chair in front of him and quietly said. “Please sit down, Peter.” Peter finally realized that he was probably not getting an award of any kind. Peter did as he was told as he shifted uncomfortably. He couldn’t remember what he had actually done wrong. Peter was a naturally, kind boring kid. Principal Morita shifted in his seat. “Peter, do you know why you’re here?”

“Um, not really.”

“Well, I can tell you,” his dad cut him off sarcastically and Peter couldn’t help, but feel annoyed. Leave it to his dad to make him feel like a naughty little kid. “We’re here because you’ve been ditching classes and you’re this close to flunking out and end up selling hot dogs by Central Park instead of going to your high school prom. Why the school didn’t bother contacting me until now, I have no idea, but I can’t wait to hear the explanation.”

Mr. Peyton started to shift through the papers and Peter started sweating. Damn, had he missed that many classes? He had been sure that it had only been a couple and he wasn’t that behind on homework. . .was he?

“Peter,” Mr. Peyton continued to shift through his papers. “I have the attendance log here and it says that you’ve been late to first period 20 times so far in a very short amount of time and that you often miss 5th period English and 6th period Spanish. In regards to your grades you’re A’s have turned to C’s, D’s, and an F in Spanish. Care to explain?”

“How can that be?” Tony turned his sharp brown eyes towards Peter, not giving him a chance to explain. “Happy drops you off for marching band at 6:30am and where the hell are you going after lunch? Do you have security cameras?”

Principal Morita turned red. “I’m afraid the budget, doesn’t-“ Tony turned away in disgust before he could finish. Principal Morita straightened up. “Mr. Stark, I regret to inform you that you have the wrong information. Peter is not registered in marching band, in fact he is only registered for Academic Decathlon and he had missed several meetings already.”

Peter really wished the ground would just open and swallow him whole already. He saw Tony’s face turn bright pink with annoyance. If there was one thing that Tony hated was being lied to, he also hated being made a fool from under his own nose. Yep, Peter was going to be sent to military school. Or a Turkish prison.

In a deathly calm voice Tony said. “Get your stuff, Peter we are going home. I will speak to him Principal Morita, and I would appreciate it that next time I am informed before all of this happens. Peter will be on time from now on and attend all his classes. He will not be allowed to attend Academic Decathlon meetings until his grades are up.”

“Of course, Mr. Stark, thank you for coming.”

The ride back to the tower was silent and since Peter kept staring at his lap he didn’t notice the looks filled with pity that Happy was giving him. Both of them got into the elevator and went up to the penthouse. Finally, away from prying eyes Tony blurted out. “Are you on drugs? Are you selling drugs? Did you join a gang?”

“What?” Peter squeaked; he would have laughed if he wasn’t waiting anxiously. “Of course not!”

Tony rubbed his temples in frustration as he paced around the living room. “You better not be lying to me, Peter.”

“I am not lying. I would never be on drugs.”

“You also said you would never get anything less than a B and flunk out of high school and yet here we are,” he said sarcastically as he headed towards the bar. “Damn it, Peter you are fifteen years old and you’re flunking out of high school, college is around the corner. Do you think MIT wants a C student?”

“I don’t even have to try.” Peter responded bitterly as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You can always buy my way in, you practically own the school by now.”

Tony’s jaw clenched as he served himself whisky. He took a sip and forced himself to calm down. Peter had Mary’s stubbornness alright, he felt like he was dancing in circles “That is not the point and you know it. Now where the hell have you been for the past few weeks? I know it hasn’t been with you friend Ted or that TJ girl because the principal didn’t mention them.”

Peter didn’t say anything and Tony put his glass down. “You don’t want to tell me, fine. From now on Happy will drive you to and from school and will pick you up in front of the school, there will be no decathlon, no hanging out with Ted and TJ. During the weekend you will stay here in the tower catching up on homework so that you don’t end up in summer school. Now go to your room, you’re grounded until I figure out what I am going to do with you.”

Peter glared at Tony, was he serious? Was he going to keep him prisoner and watch his every move? How was he going to patrol for God’s sakes? “You can’t do that!”

“I can and I will,” Tony said without missing a beat. “I am your father after all and you’re my kid. This is for your own good, Peter.”


	13. Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your incredible patience! Peter is going to get a nasty surprise in the next chapter!

Thirteen

“Pepper, he is a spoiled little brat with an attitude.” Tony told Pepper as he sipped on a glass of whisky while Pepper rubbed his shoulders. She had come home to find Peter pouting in his room and Tony walking around the living room like a pissed off cat. In true Pepper fashion she had stepped in, in order to serve as a mediator. Tony and Peter didn’t fight often, but when they did it was expected that they were going to step on each others toes. Thankfully, Pepper had experience dealing with difficult people.

“He’s a teenager Tony,” Pepper said gently. “It was expected that he was going to rebel. He’s not going to be the obedient little boy forever, are you sure that you didn’t exaggerate just a bit?” she raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow and Tony pretended not to look.

He finished off his drink, “Maybe we wrote off boarding school too soon, you and I are incredibly busy perhaps it would be better for Peter to be somewhere where there are no distractions. There’s a great all boys boarding school in Washington-“

Pepper interrupted him. “You are not sending him back to boarding school, Christ Tony the poor boy has spent half of his life being hidden in boarding schools. You can’t hide him forever and you can’ t ship him off the minute that it is convenient for you. Peter is a smart boy he will raise his grades, there are still months until the end of the semester. I promise that he will still have MIT knocking on his door when the time is right.”

“Well, at least I can be assured that fast food joints are always hiring. Or maybe he can learn to steal cars. He’s skinny he can probably fit anywhere easily.”

Pepper rolled her eyes and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m flying to Singapore tonight.”

“Don’t you mean that we are flying to Singapore?”

“I think that you should stay here and fix things with Pete or at the very least play nice,” Pepper said. “Besides it’s only for a week and this trip is all about formalities. I’ll be fine and I expect that once I come back you guys aren’t at each other’s throats.” Tony mumbled something under his breath that Pepper pretended not to hear. She headed towards Peter’s room.

Peter was pouting and flipping through a Batman comic book that he had read a thousand times. He smiled when he saw Pepper and Pepper kissed his forehead. “Hello, baby.”

“Hello, Pep.” Pepper always made Peter feel like he was 7 years old again. It was nice. “I thought you were in Singapore.”

“I’m leaving in a few hours.” Pepper confirmed as she brushed back his dark hair. “I wanted to say goodbye first and I also want you to know that I spoke to your father and unruffled his feathers.”

“No boarding school?”

“No boarding school,” Pepper smiled as she looked at him with concern. “But is everything alright, Peter? It isn’t like you to not do your schoolwork, lie, or miss classes. Is everything alright? Is there anything I can help you with?”

Peter looked at the floor. He was never good at lying and it felt bad lying to Pepper especially when she had always had his back. “Everything is fine, Pepper. I guess I got a little sidetracked, but I will catch up. I promise.”

“I know you will.” Pepper said as she kissed his forehead. “Goodbye, Peter I’ll see you in a week and we can get a nice dinner together. There is a new Thai place in Queens that it is said to be spectacular. Please try not to bite your father’s head off, I would rather not return to a murder scene.”

A smile curled at his lip at the teasing. “No promises. Just hurry up, please.”

* * *

 

Three days later Peter came home after school lunging a packet from his English and Math classes that he needed to complete if he wanted to get at least a C this semester. He had briefly thought about asking Ned to come back to the tower with him since Tony was at HQ for the afternoon, but he had decided against it in case Tony came back early and he had to face his wrath. 

Peter was bored and trying to hide his irritation at Tony. If it wasn’t for him he would have been swinging through New York City making someone’s life a little bit better. His costume, he thought back to his flimsy costume. It wouldn’t last more than a couple of days and he wasn’t the best sewer. 

_ You have access to the best equipment at your fingertips,  _ a little voice told him _. Better than whatever you would find at the thrift store. It will last longer and you would be able to do much cooler things._ A second thought _._ _He would kill you if he found out._

Peter ignored the voice as he went towards Tony’s lab. He knew one thing, he couldn’t rely on that costume forever. The lab was locked at it occurred to Peter that he didn’t know the password. What could it be? His dad may be a super genius, but sometimes he was more obvious. Peter punched in Tony’s birthday on the key pad. Beep. Peter’s birthday. Beep. Pepper’s birthday. Beep. “You have one more try. If you fail again, security will be called.” Friday quipped.

Peter gulped and finally dialed Peter and Pepper’s birthday together. The door made a positive beep sound this time and Peter’s heart finally started beating again. He couldn’t believe that was the password. Peter saw the rows and rows of computers, armor, and tools. It was like a playground come true, he had only been here a handful of times.

“Friday?” Peter gulped.

A chirpy voice answered. “Yes, Peter?”

“Can you tell me how to work this stuff? All of it?” he looked at the row of computers and options in front of him. “I need to make a suit.”

* * *

 

_ Ten year old Peter clutched the flowers that Pepper insist that he bring to his father once Happy dropped him off at the hospital. It seemed that everything was happening so fast. This was not supposed to happened. Peter didn’t even know what was happening to be honest. _

_ All he knew is that he had been pulled from class and sent on the first private planed back to Malibu where Happy had picked him up. Peter had tried to get more information from Happy, but Happy would just not budge. He had kept looking at Peter with those poor-little-orphan looks that seemed to be popular. All he had told him was that his dad had gotten really sick and that he was at the hospital and that Pepper thought she should visit him instead of going to his class trip at the zoo. _

_ Peter wasn’t even sure that his dad wanted him there, he never seemed pleased to see him. Peter clutched the flowers as Pepper practically pushed him into Tony’s room. “Someone is here to see you,” Pepper said in a sing songy voice. _

_ Peter froze in his tracks, he was holding the flowers in his hands and staring at Tony. He looked. . .he looked dead. He looked different from the imperious man that Peter was used to seeing in his 3 piece suits. He looked sick and old. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and he looked pale. The arc reactor on his chest looked black almost as if the arc reactor was dying. Tony was high strung on pain meds, he didn’t even know Peter was there. _

_ Peter continued to stare, he looked dead. He looked dead and if he died then what would happen to him? He had no one. Pepper put an arm on his shoulder. “Honey, your father is going to-“ He didn’t let Pepper finish instead Peter drop the flowers on the floor and ran towards the waiting room. _


	14. Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been forever, but I'm back!

Fourteen

His father decided to attend a benefit for Somalia orphans that night leaving Peter with the suit. His beautiful, hand crafted probably worth a million dollar suit. Peter stared at the suit in front of him. He couldn’t believed that he had done it and all without Friday tattling on him. Then again, his father who probably thought of everything, probably thought that never in a million years Peter would hack into his lab and make him own suit.

Peter touched the fabric and he couldn’t believe that he had made it so fast. It was made of a thick, but light weight material in shades of blue, red, and black. A large black spider was in the middle of his chest and he could actually see when he was wearing his mask. It made his own handmade suit look like it came from the 99 cent store. He had even added a couple of features like six different types of web shooters and night vision. Friday had even been nice enough to suggest that Peter add an AI in his suit for emergencies.

Peter had agreed, but now he wondered if it was a stupid idea. It would probably make it easier for Tony to track him. His new AI had a soft, feminine voice and Peter had named her Karen because she reminded him of Plankton’s computer wife from Spongebob.

Now Peter was in his bedroom just staring at his brand, new shiny suit. At this point, Peter thought bitterly he could only wear it as pajamas. But he looked back, his father wasn’t here. He was somewhere in glitzy Manhattan pretending to care about orphans. But his suit was dying to be worn out and it wouldn’t hurt to go for an hour. Just one measly hour and he would be back before his father called the FBI or whatever.

It was just one hour. It would be breaking rule 386. . .screw it.

Before Peter chickened out he put on his suit, he loved how the spandex felt around his skin. It made him feel powerful, a little less like Peter Parker-Stark and more like Spiderman. “Good evening, Peter welcome,” Karen’s voice chirped as sweet at honey. “It is 8:53pm and the weather is a crisp 71 degrees. What would you like to do, Peter?”

“Hi, uh-Karen let’s take the suit out for a test run to make sure that everything is functional.” Peter said trying to hide his nervousness. “Let’s try something small like a bike robbery just in case it fails. Oh, and Karen set the timer for 1 hour. I need to be back before my dad gets home.”

“Mr. Stark never makes failures, Peter and you’re his son so it means you never make failures. “ Karen said kindly. “Setting timer starting now.”

Instead of going through the front door of the tower like a normal person, Peter choose the more dramatic option: jumping through the window. He opened the heavy, bullet proof window and breathed the cold, musky New York City air. “Let’s go.”

Thanks to his new suit Peter felt lighter as he swung towards the air, jumping from building to building almost as if he could fly. “You’re going at an excellent rate, Peter.” Karen said in an upbeat voice, he knew that she was an AI, but it was kind of nice. “Oh, Peter I found something a man in a baseball hat is bothering a red headed woman and trying to steal her motorcycle. 1 mile away, I’ll start guiding you.”

“Thanks, Karen.” He said as he focused on the red headed woman that was arguing with a blond man in a baseball cap. “Activate voice changer.”

“Activating voice changer.”

“Hey!” Peter expected a manly, deep voice to come up, but instead his voice sounded squeaky like Donald Duck. He froze as the blond and the redhead turned towards him looking confused. “Wait-Karen this is not-“

“So you’re the famous Spider Man?” the red head sounded doubtful.

Peter took a closer look and gaped when he saw that it was Natasha Romanoff and Mr. Rogers. They had lured him here and Peter had been stupid enough to fall for it. He wondered if he could take both of them. Not likely.

Steve took a step forward in mock surrender. “Look, Spider Man we are not trying to hurt you. We are trying to help you, you obviously have your heart in the right place. You’re talented, but we want to help you achieve more than what you’re achieving now.”

“You could be one of us,” Natasha said slowly, sounding a bit doubtful. “You have the right clothes now, but you still need training. A lot of training.” Natasha handed him a card. “We can help you soften up the rough edges. This is our numbers, call us whenever you’re ready, Spider-Man.”

Peter watched as Steve and Natasha left and he could feel his heart beating inside his chest rapidly. His secret was safe. He looked at the card. Now he had a decision to make.

* * *

Tony had left the tower even before Peter woke up in the morning and when Peter went to the kitchen to get a pop tart he noticed that he hadn’t even finished his coffee which for Tony was just plain weird. He lived on coffee and alcohol.

Peter still felt weird about yesterday and he knew that he had to thank his lucky stars that he hadn’t gotten caught. It was going to be one of those lazy Sundays, Peter knew and he decided to work on his family tree project for his Biology class.

The thing was that he didn’t know that much about Mary and Richard Parker, the only thing that he knew was that they had died in a weird accident. He didn’t have any relatives which is why he had ended up with Tony. Peter knew even less about Howard and Maria Stark and they weren’t his biological parents.

“Friday?”

“Yes, Peter?”

“Does dad have something in where I can find information about my family? About my biological mom and dad specifically? Like the types of diseases that run in my family, hair color, etc?”

“There’s something that Mr. Stark is developing for HQ,” Friday mused. “But it is still not fully developed. I’m afraid that it would only give you information from local hospitals, morgues, and any convictions as well as immediate family.”

“That’s fine,” Peter said with a shrug. “It’s not a big project and all my family is dead anyway.”

“Very well, Peter.” Friday chirped. A small tray appeared in the middle of the room along with a clean needle. “I will prick your blood and then we will use that information to track down information from local newspapers and hospital documents.”

Peter winced as the needle pricked his finger, the ruby red droplet dropped on the tray. It took a moment for Friday to respond. “Peter, I found a match that may be more helpful in your project. It is always better to have a reliable source rather that depend on documents, especially if that source is close to your biological parents.”

Peter frowned. “But my entire family is dead.”

“Yes, Mary and Richard Parker died over a decade ago,” she said patiently. “You do have one relative that is still alive and lives in Queens, however. Your aunt on your father’s side-May Parker.”


	15. Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoy this new chapter!

Fifteen

Peter felt like he was going to throw up. His throat felt tight and he was definitely going to hurl on the expensive carpet flown over from Bulgaria. He actually had a relative? A living, breathing relative that actually shared Peter’s blood? He had an Aunt.

When he had been a child, he had asked Tony if he had any relatives and he had always responded with a curt no. After all if he had any relatives would he be there with Tony? Not likely.

Peter’s cheeks burned at the though. He had never questioned Tony. Was it possible that he had lied to him? Of course he had lied to him, Tony always meddled even when he didn’t asked him to. He felt so stupid, he had never though of asking Friday or Pepper if he had any relatives. “Friday,” he said quietly. “Did dad. . .did dad lie to me? Did he knew that I had an aunt as my only living relative in New York?”

Friday didn’t respond right away and it seemed that she was protecting him which only pissed Peter off even more. “He did it to protect you, Peter because he loves you. Mr. Stark thought that you would do better with him.”

“Of course he did,” Rage seemed to course in Peter’s veins. “It seems that Mr. Stark though of everything, that he thought what was best for me without ever asking me, without even bothering to tell me even years later. He still insists on treating me like a child-“

“You are a child-“

“Not anymore I’m not,” he snapped. Peter tried to think back at any mention of an aunt, but he came out blank. No one had mentioned anything to Peter of having a missing relative. Not Pepper. Not Tony. Not Happy. He expected it from Tony, but he felt kind of betrayed by Pepper and Happy. “Friday, do you know why dad refused to let me know about my Aunt May?” Maybe he had a good reason maybe Aunt May was a secret serial killer or something.

“I am not entirely aware of the situation, Peter.” Friday said calmly. “All I know is that your mother signed over guardianship to Mr. Stark upon her and your father’s death. You mother signed the documents.”

“Not my father?”

“If both parents are deceased then only one signature is needed.” Friday calmly explained. “I have May Parker’s address if that is of interest to you, but Peter I must insist please speak with Mr. Stark about this, it is for your own good.”

“I think I can handle this without my father.” Peter said as he wrote down the address on a piece of paper in shaky writing. It was only a couple of subway rides away. He had taken the subway a couple of times and he could surely handle it this time. He wasn’t the delicate flower that Tony thought he was. “I’ll be back before he comes back, Fri.” He should probably ask Friday if his father had put any security in place, but his thoughts were too scrambled to think properly.

The subway ride was longer that Peter had anticipated, and he could see that the shiny, buildings and town cars were slowly disappearing with each stop. This was probably the reason why Peter had never stood foot in Queens.

“Get a grip, Peter.” he mumbled to himself. The last thing that he wanted was to act like a spoiled rich kid even though he was a spoiled rich kid. He entered the address that Friday had given him on Google Maps and got off the spot it indicated. Next he had to take a bus.

“$2.75 kid,” an overweight bearded man said gruffly when Peter went in. Peter flushed as he dug into his pockets. He normally paid everything by credit card and he didn’t spend much except the occasional Star Wars figurine or pizza that he shared with Ned.

By sheer dumb luck he managed to find some change in his pockets. The man grunted and Peter went inside. The bus was packed with crying children, teenagers, and tired adults. Peter took a seat towards the end and tried to ignore the smell of cat pee that was present.

He looked out the window as the bus passed by, there were many old buildings, colorful markets, and so many restaurants and hot dog stands. Peter bit his lip, this could have been his life if Tony hadn’t taken him, if his mother hadn’t signed away the papers. Why had his mother signed away Peter’s life to Tony? Maybe his aunt knew.

Peter though of the way the way that his life would have been different if he had lived with Aunt May instead. He would have gone to public school in Queens, he would have probably come home every night to a home cooked meal, and he would have probably gone to school every day feeling loved instead of being ignored like an unwanted puppy.

But then there was the other side of the coin that Peter didn’t want to realize. If Tony hadn’t adopted him he would have never meet Pepper, Happy, Harry, Ned, MJ, or any of the Avengers, he had access to everything that he could want, he would never have to worry about money or college. He didn’t have to work if he didn’t want to. _You owe a lot to Tony too._

The bus stopped and Peter got out in front of an apartment building that was painted gray and was a bit sad looking. There were a couple of toddlers playing in front of the building and two young women were speaking Spanish by the front door. There was one thing that Peter had forgotten to ask Friday. He didn’t know May’s apartment number. Now it was time that he put his minimal Spanish that he knew to work. He approached the two young women. “Uh, Hola. . .perdoname. . .uh May Parker Apartment uh numero.”

The younger one of them giggled. “Si, tercer piso. Third floor. 4C.”

“Gracias.”

Peter slowly went upstairs, he could feel his palms sweating and his heart seemed to be racing. Now that he was here, he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to act. He didn’t even know if Aunt May was going to like him. If worse came to worse, Peter could always pretend that this day didn’t happened.

He finally reached 4C and he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A tired woman with long brown hair and pink scrubs answered. She was wearing glasses that looked like they came from the 1970’s. They were cool.

She perched her glasses on her nose and raised an eyebrow. “I assume that you are not bringing me my Chinese food.”

Peter gave a nervous laugh. “No, I’m not. Sorry to bother you, but are you-are you May Parker?” The woman nodded. “I, um this is kind of awkward, but I’m Peter Parker. I’m Mary and Richard’s son. I’m your nephew.”

May’s mouth went into a tiny O as she pulled Peter into a tight hug, she smelled like hand sanitizer and fresh laundry. May stroked his hair. “Oh, Peter, oh Peter is it really you? Oh, Peter!”


	16. Sixteen

Sixteen

Peter felt the warmth of the hug and he felt his tired arms relax. So this is what a hug felt like. Not that he hadn’t ever been hugged before, but unless he was somehow involved in a near death experience those were few and far between. Besides this hug felt different maybe because May was family.

Peter knew that they weren’t biologically related, but still Peter could feel a connection and May was looking at him as if he were a long lost puppy so that had to be a good sign right? The two of them stood and smile at each other like a couple of dorks for a few minutes, until May wiped a few stray tears that were threatening to fall. “Where are my manners? Come in, Peter you must be freezing.”

Peter went inside the small apartment, his room was no doubt bigger than May’s apartment, but Peter liked it. It had a warm, cozy feel that a private bathroom and a walk in closet didn’t necessarily provide. The apartment smelled like vanilla and Peter noticed that May wasn’t the most organize person as she put a bunch of sweaters and old scrubs into the clothes hamper.

She shrugged slightly embarrassed. “Sorry for the mess, I’m not used to having company. Do you want tea? I can make you tea.” Peter nodded as he looked around the room that was covered with photographs. He recognized the one that Tony had showed him a couple of time of Mary, Richard, and baby Peter. There were a couple of others on May’s wall and coffee table. There was his mother and father drinking coffee and wearing party hats for New Year’s, a picture of his father graduating from college, his mom looking very pregnant and holding a stuffed rabbit at a baby shower. Peter’s heart ached and he didn’t know why he felt sad. He had never even meet them and yet-he sighed was it weird that he was sad over a life he had never had?

If his parents hadn’t died and he hadn’t been adopted by Tony Stark what could have his life had been? He probably would be living in Queens and living in a small apartment. His mom would help him with his science experiments and his dad would offer to tour colleges with him. They would have dinner every night and-

“Earth to Peter,” May said gently as she handed him some tea. “What are you thinking about sweetheart?”

“Nothing,” Peter said suddenly feeling shy. “I was just thinking how different it would have been, if my mom and dad hadn’t died. If I would have grown up normal instead of-“

“Instead of the son of a very rich man?” May tried to hide the bitterness in her tone, but she wasn’t successful. She took a sip of tea as Peter looked down at his lap. “Oh, Peter honey I’m sorry sometimes my temper gets the best of me. It’s just to think about all the time that we have lost together. Ben and I never knew why Mary would pass you along to Tony Stark of all people-of course Mary wasn’t planning on dying so young.”

“Ben?” Peter questioned. He had always been terrible at names, but right now he was trying to get all of the names together. “Who is he?”

“My husband. Was my husband.” May corrected sadly as she went towards the coffee table and picked up a photo of a smiling, older man. “He died a few years ago, armed robbery. Oh, Peter you would have loved him.”

Peter’s throat felt tight, he wanted to feel sad. But how could you feel sad over people you had never meet? “Why did my dad-why did Tony even take me in the first place? Even if my mom signed over my rights, you and Ben were my family not him.”

May shook her head, she was still a pretty woman though she looked exhausted and sad. “I wish I had more answers for you Peter. I know that Mary and Tony meet in college and they had some weird relationship for a while, but then your mom married Richard and had you. No one expected him to come out of the blue and act all fatherly.” She paused and said tensely. “Peter, does your father know you’re here? How did you even find out about me?”

Peter shook his head. “He doesn’t. I had a biology project due for school and I had to do a family tree. Dad always told me that I didn’t have any living relatives, but I thought I would check and there you were.” Peter smiled shyly, but May looked panicked as she stood up.

“Peter you need to leave,” May said tensely. “If your father finds out that I even breathed in your direction he will find a way to destroy me. You don’t know this, but when you were a baby Ben and I fought like hell to get you back or at the very least get visitation rights, but Tony refused. He threatened to sue us and we would have never been able to pay it back. Peter, honey I am begging you please leave if he finds out that you are here, I don’t know what he will do.”

Peter’s skin started feeling prickly and it took all of his strength not to explode in anger. Did Tony ruined everything he touched? Was this how it was going to be for the rest of his life, letting him agree with whatever he wanted as he slowly drove Peter insane? He might not be 18 yet, but he was certainly not a child.

“When can I see you again?” Peter asked as he grabbed his coat. “I have so many questions.”

“Soon, soon.” May said, but Peter had a feeling that she was probably lying. She seemed to be so afraid of Tony that he wouldn’t be surprised if May decided to leave the country as dramatic as that sounded.

Peter was about to hug her goodbye when he heard such a loud knock on the door that Peter was surprised that whoever was at the other side hadn’t broken the door. “MAY!” Peter stiffed, he recognized that voice. He was all too familiar with it and when he heard that voice he usually duck and covered. How had he found him so fast?

How do you think dummy? He had a Stark phone, a Stark watch, a wallet stuffed with credit cards. Tony would have been a complete imbecile if he didn’t know where Peter was 24/7. Not to mention a few well place questions and Friday would spill because her job was to act like a nanny. “MAY!” Peter threw May an apologetic look and her smile wobbled.

Peter opened the door and saw Tony standing there with a pissed off expression on his face. His face was flushed as if he had been running and the vein on the side of his neck that usually popped when he was upset was there at full speed.

“Who the hell gave you permission to leave the house?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience! Tony and Peter's dynamic relationship will start changing in the next chapter!


	17. Seventeen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your lovely reviews! Please stay safe!

Seventeen

Tony was yelling at Peter, but his angry brown eyes kept staring at May. May despite her initial fear of getting caught by Tony talking to her nephew was refusing to back down as she continued to glare back at him. She reminded Peter of Pepper for some reason, both women were not afraid to stand up to Tony despite his status and money. 

“I told you to stay away from him, May!”

“Don’t yell at her!” Peter yelled. “And stay away from her.”

Tony turned his attention towards Peter and said coldly. “No one is talking to you, Peter. Take you stuff. We are going home. Now.” Despite the sweat of nervousness dripping down his brow Peter refused to move. He knew that Tony would never physically hurt him, but Tony had other methods of torture. “Peter, I swear to God if you don’t start moving-“

“Peter, honey.” May said gently. “Just get your stuff please. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Go home.”

Peter hesitated for a while before deciding that May was right, staying here would probably be more harmful to May if he put up more of a fight. Besides Peter may be Spiderman now, but Tony still had the upper hand with the NYC police, Avengers, and multiple suits by his side. 

Peter quietly grabbed his backpack and looked at May. “I’ll visit you soon, I promise.” Tony snorted, but May and Peter ignored him. May kissed him on his forehead and Peter grabbed his backpack.

The two of them moved rapidly out of the apartment building once they had left May. Peter noticed that there were three police cars along with Happy waiting outside. “Was all of this necessary?” he asked with bitterness in his tone as Happy opened the door for him.

“I didn’t know how May was going to react,” the excused sounded pathetic to Tony’s own ears. “These are precautions Peter something that you obviously do not know about.”

“Why would I need precautions for my own Aunt?” Peter snapped back. Tony’s jaw clenched and he saw how he paled when Peter mentioned the word, aunt. Usually Peter was careful with the words that he used in order not to piss Tony off, but he was tired of pretending.

Happy accidently let out a nervous laugh as they went home, driving at least 10 miles over the speed limit while Peter and Tony sat next to each other in stormy silence. When they finally arrived at the tower Peter was about to storm into his room when Tony snapped. “Hold it! We are not done discussing this yet, get your butt in here!”

Peter turned around and crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at him. Spiderman or not Peter knew that because of his small frame he looked as threatening as a pissed off kitten, but he was not going to give Tony the satisfaction of walking all over him. Again.

Tony for the first time looked awkward and Peter guessed it was because it was one of the rare times that Pepper wasn’t around to play referee. “How much-“ he asked awkwardly. “How much do you know about everything?”

“I think I got the gist of it, you should thank Midtown because if it wasn’t for the stupid family tree project that they made me do, I would have probably never would have found out.” Peter walked towards him. “My parents died in an awful accident, that I do know because you told me. Apparently, you didn’t lie to me about that, but you lied about everything else. Why didn’t you tell me that I had an aunt and uncle that were still alive?”

“I didn’t tell you because it was not necessary for you to know.” Tony said tensely, he had never seen Peter so upset he was happy-go-lucky-most of the time. Like a puppy. “Mary had me as your legal guardian in case she and Richard died. That was what she wanted. Believe it or not, kid May has to follow the rules just like everyone else.”

“Well, that was my mom’s mistake.” Peter said coldly. “Da-Tony,” the words sounded weird on his tongue and Tony didn’t like the fact that Peter started calling him by his first name. It was a sign of total disrespect which Tony did not appreciate, even if Peter had every right to feel pissed off. “You don’t even want me, you never wanted me, you always treated me like a burden-“

“That’s not true!”

“You send me to boarding school for six years!” Peter snapped. “The only reason that I am even here in the first place was because Loki decided to destroy half of New York otherwise I would still be in boarding school because you wouldn’t want me to cramp on your lifestyle.”

Tony gave a frustrated sigh as he went towards the bar and poured himself a drink. He had a feeling that he was going to need more of these tonight. “You’re acting like a brat right now, you know that don’t you? I gave you the best education until you decided to go to Midtown. I gave you whatever you wanted and you never starved while you were under my roof. Do you think May and Ben could have given you that? Why do you think Mary left you with me?” He knew the words were harsh, but Peter was stubborn like Mary, maybe being cruel would have the desired effect.

“Sometimes material stuff isn’t enough,” Peter recounted, an idea entered his head and he briefly wondered if Tony would go through with it. Well, it was worth a shot. “My parents are no longer alive and I’m fifteen years old, you’ve already done most of the heavy lifting-“

“Just spit it out, Peter.”

“I want you to give custody to May.” Peter said slowly. “She is my immediate family and I was supposed to be raised in Queens and this-this way we can both get what we want. I’m grateful for what you have done, but this would be better. Besides May wants to get to know me-“

“Are you _insane?_ No way in hell am I’m giving custody to May Parker. Jesus, kid do you think everyone is your life is replaceable. Have you thought about Pepper? Happy? Ked? CJ? And the rest of your little friends or don’t they fit into the perfect life that you have planned out?” Tony walked towards him making Peter feel very small. “Get one thing straight, over my dead body am I handing you over to May because that’s what both of you want. Another thing, you don’t make the rules. You said it yourself, you’re fifteen. Let me tell you what is going to happen, you are going to your room and tomorrow you are going to get on the first plane to Malibu where you will finish up high school and you will never see May again.”

Fury entered Peter’s chest as his fists balled up in anger. He had enough. He was not going to be controlled by his father any longer. Without thinking about his newfound strength he pushed his father as hard as he could, causing Tony to nearly fly as he hit the wall and fell down like a rag doll.

Peter’s heart was beating inside his chest and he could feel his heart trembling. Had he killed him? He hadn’t meant to kill him. He noticed that Tony had a black eye on his left eye. Peter went towards him and started shaking him. “Dad-Dad are you ok? Friday?”

“Your father passed out because of the strength of your push, Peter.” Friday said. “He has a mild concussion, but he should regain consciousness soon. Medical attention is recommended, but he will survive and he will needs rest.”

Peter breathed a sign of relief. “Fri, call Dr. Banner please. Tell him to come to the tower, but don’t give him the reason.” If what Friday said was true he only had a few minutes to make his escape. He needed to run. Now.

 


	18. Eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your patience! This entire chapter is from Tony's perspective : )

Eighteen

When Tony woke up his head felt heavy as if he had drank too many glasses of whisky and for a second he wondered if he had passed out in the living room again covered in his own vomit. Pepper would be pissed if he had. Wait, she was in Singapore he could totally get a maid to come clean up before she even came back.

His brown eyes flickered, and it took him a moment for his vision to stop spinning. It took another moment for him to realize that he was no longer at the tower in the city. He was in Avengers HQ. He frowned, he didn’t remember driving there.

It took Tony another moment to realize that he was in the hospital section of the compound and he had an IV needle connected to his arm. His nose also hurt and for a second he wondered if he had broken it. Fuck.

He used one of his arms to touch it and he felt the heavy bandages. Definitely broken. He touched his eye and found that it was almost swollen shut. No wonder he was having a hard time keeping his eyes opened.

Tony saw Steve passed out on the chair across from him with a 2012 edition of US Weekly on his lap. He was slightly snoring and usually Tony found these types of situations funny, but not right now. There was nothing funny about this entire situation. In fact, Tony felt his blood pressure rise up and if he died from a heart attack he would blame Peter. “Psst, psst Rogers!”

Steve continued snoring, Tony got frustrated and threw one of the pillows at his chest. “Wake. The. Hell. Up!”

Steve flinched awake and put the magazine down. Steve stared at Tony dumbly. “You’re awake.”

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past ten minutes,” Tony snapped trying to ignore the pain on his back. He needed pain pills stat. “Where the hell am I?”

“HQ.” Steve answered as if it should have been obvious. He stared at the Apple watch that Natasha had given him on his birthday last year as a joke and to piss Tony off since Steve had refused to use any Stark technology. Tony saw that it was 10:10pm. Fuck. It had been hours since Peter and him got into a fight. “You’ve been out for hours, Tony. We were getting a bit worried even though Bruce and Dr. Chan said you were fine-“ he trailed off. “Pepper is on her way back, she should be back from Singapore tomorrow afternoon. What happened, Tony?”

“Where’s Peter?” Tony asked ignoring the questions as he tried to remove the IV from his arm. He looked around for his phone, but he couldn’t find it. He needed his phone, maybe the brat had called. It had been hours. Peter had been pampered and spoiled all his life. There was no way that he would be ok in the city by himself without someone holding his hand.

“We don’t know.” Steve started to look frantic. “Peter ordered Friday to call Bruce. When Bruce got there he saw that you were passed out in the living room. Pete was nowhere in sight. What happened, Tony?”

“The little brat punched me,” Tony winced as he finally removed the needle from his arm. He managed to get slowly out of bed, wincing as his sore muscles started to move. “We had a fight and he snapped.”

Steve looked puzzled as he helped Tony out of bed. “How on earth did he hurt you so much?” Steve thought back to Peter, he was slim and delicate looking and he doubted that he weight more than 150 pounds. Tony was a grown adult not to mention that he had a ton of tools at his disposal.

“It’s a long story and believe me I’m confused myself,” Tony looked at Steve and bit his bottom lip. “Get Bruce, there are some questions that I want to ask him and he is the only one that will be able to help. Get Nat too and . . .Wanda she and Peter are close.”

* * *

“. . .You guys knew that Peter was not my biological son and Peter knew that. I didn’t expect for him to get so tied up over May Parker.” Tony said as he looked at the people that had become almost like his second family: Bruce, Natasha, Steve, Wanda, even Bucky had tagged along for some goddamn reason, but he was by the doorway practically scared to enter the room. “We got into an argument and Peter snapped and he threw me against the wall. His strength. . .his strength was not normal. He has never been this strong, you know how he has always been sickly. But the strength from his push was enough for me to pass out. Something happened in the last few weeks since that stupid party at Osborn’s.”

“Why was he so angry?” Wanda asked gently, he pretty face was turned into a worried frown. “That’s not like him, he is usually very gentle.”

Tony flinched, maybe right now was not best time to tell them that he was responsible for Peter running away from home. “It doesn’t matter. Can we focus on the problem on hand: Peter. How the hell did Peter get his super strength?”

“You said that things started to change after the Osborn party,” Bucky said with a raised eyebrow finally speaking up. “What makes you say that? What was so special about that party?”

“There was nothing special about that party, other than he got sick afterwards.” Tony paused. He thought back to the events after the Osborn party, Peter acting shady, all the sneaking around, the trouble at school. Something _had_ happed at the Osborn party. “The fugitive might have a point, Bruce you ran some blood tests when Peter got really sick right?” Bruce nodded. “Show them to me, I think we need to take a closer look.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something? What about Peter?” Natasha pointed out. “Pepper is coming back in a few hours and she will kill you if she finds out that Peter is missing and you were out here looking at his blood.”

“I have Friday breaking into all the security cameras and I’m tracking down his credit cards and cell phone.” Tony said easily. “Believe me, I will find him.”

* * *

_-Fourteen Years Old-_

“Midtown High?” Tony said wrinkling his nose as he looked up from the champagne that he had been trying to serve to Pepper. Typical, Peter had choose Pepper to deliver the bad news like always. Which was probably a smart idea on his part now that he thought of it. “Why on earth would I let him go to public school? He already has a spot at St. Andrews.”

“His friend that he meet at Math camp is going there, Ned Leeds.” Pepper said smoothly as she took the glass away from him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Midtown High may be a public school, but it is well known that, that school has certified geniuses.”

Tony groaned. “I don’t know why he wants to go there, just because Ted is attending.”

“Ned.”

“Whatever. Doesn’t he understand that going to public school puts him more at risk for kidnapping? Torture?”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “He’s not an international spy, Tony. He is going to be a high school freshman. Let him go, Tony he is old enough to make his own decisions.”


End file.
